Struggling customers' water, power would stay on during heat waves under new proposal

Utility customers in Washington state who can’t pay their bills are protected from having their heat shut off during extreme cold weather. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson wants to add similar protections for customers’ water and power during extreme heat waves.

“Access to running water and electricity can be a matter of life and death during extreme heat,” Ferguson said by email. “Washingtonians should not suffer and die because they miss a payment on a utility bill.”

Kim Butler of Seattle, a single mom who works as a nanny, said she welcomes Ferguson’s proposal.

“There are so many people who are living on a very limited income at this point,” she said.

Butler came close to having her electricity shut off after her income dwindled during the pandemic. A statewide moratorium on utility shutoffs during the pandemic expired in September 2021.

“What we need to do is make sure that people have the ability to keep their utilities running, to stay cool in their homes,” Butler said. “Climate change is already started. It's pretty evident that people are going to need help with that aspect of life.”

Butler was able to get financial assistance from government agencies and the non-profit Byrd Barr Place in Seattle to keep her lights on and water running.

Many utilities have programs to help people who are having trouble paying their bills.

Ferguson’s proposal would stop utilities in the state from shutting off customers’ water or power when the thermometer hits 95 degrees. Customers would still have to pay their bills eventually, but they would get a reprieve until the weather cools off.

California, Oregon, and 17 other states already have similar laws.

Extreme heat killed an estimated 400 people in Washington state in 2021 and 10 people in 2022, many of them inside their overheated homes. The 2021 heat wave was the deadliest weather event in the state’s history.

Extreme heat waves are expected to become more common as humanity keeps adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the global atmosphere.

A spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, said it already has a policy of no electricity shutoffs when the mercury hits 90 degrees. Spokane-based Avista stops shutoffs when temperatures are forecast to hit 100.

Seattle City Light and Tacoma Public Utilities also do not disconnect customer during extreme heat or cold, according to their spokespeople.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission requires investor-owned utilities like Puget Sound Energy to halt non-voluntary shutoffs during “inclement weather,” though that term is left up to interpretation.

Publicly owned utilities in Washington have no such requirement.

“Fully half of Washingtonians have no formal protections, and even those who do will have different rules depending on where they live,” Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Brionna Aho said by email.

The proposal, to be introduced in the state legislature by Ferguson and state Sen. Joe Nguyen of White Center, would not stop utilities from shutting down power lines to reduce the risk of sparking wildfires during extreme heat.