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Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States
Energy insecurity—the inability to secure one’s energy needs—impacts millions of Americans each year. A particularly severe instance of energy insecurity is when a utility disconnects a household from service, affecting its ability to refrigerate perishable food, purchase medicine, or maintain adequ...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10025124/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36949753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106244 |
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author | Memmott, Trevor Carley, Sanya Graff, Michelle Konisky, David M. |
author_facet | Memmott, Trevor Carley, Sanya Graff, Michelle Konisky, David M. |
author_sort | Memmott, Trevor |
collection | PubMed |
description | Energy insecurity—the inability to secure one’s energy needs—impacts millions of Americans each year. A particularly severe instance of energy insecurity is when a utility disconnects a household from service, affecting its ability to refrigerate perishable food, purchase medicine, or maintain adequate temperatures. Governments can protect vulnerable populations from disconnections through policies, such as shutoff moratoria or seasonal protections that limit disconnections during extreme weather months. We take advantage of the temporary disconnection moratoria that states implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the efficacy of state protections on rates of disconnection, spending across other essential needs, and uptake of bill payment assistance. We find that protections reduce disconnections and the need for households to forgo other expenses. We further find that protections are most beneficial to people of color and households with young children. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications for energy-insecure populations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10025124 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100251242023-03-21 Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States Memmott, Trevor Carley, Sanya Graff, Michelle Konisky, David M. iScience Article Energy insecurity—the inability to secure one’s energy needs—impacts millions of Americans each year. A particularly severe instance of energy insecurity is when a utility disconnects a household from service, affecting its ability to refrigerate perishable food, purchase medicine, or maintain adequate temperatures. Governments can protect vulnerable populations from disconnections through policies, such as shutoff moratoria or seasonal protections that limit disconnections during extreme weather months. We take advantage of the temporary disconnection moratoria that states implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the efficacy of state protections on rates of disconnection, spending across other essential needs, and uptake of bill payment assistance. We find that protections reduce disconnections and the need for households to forgo other expenses. We further find that protections are most beneficial to people of color and households with young children. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications for energy-insecure populations. Elsevier 2023-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10025124/ /pubmed/36949753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106244 Text en © 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Memmott, Trevor Carley, Sanya Graff, Michelle Konisky, David M. Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title | Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title_full | Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title_fullStr | Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title_full_unstemmed | Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title_short | Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States |
title_sort | utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the united states |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10025124/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36949753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106244 |
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