Justice First, D.C.-area residents fight energy shutoffs

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, which includes parts of Virginia and Maryland, are at risk of having their gas and electricity shut off. April 1 was the last day of the winter restriction on shutoffs.

Justice First volunteers collect signatures against electricity shutoffs, Washington, D.C., March 31.

Justice First organized a demonstration April 1 at the office building of Pepco, the D.C. metropolitan-area provider of electric service. Activists met and spoke with many of the city’s residents that are struggling to pay their utility bills as they came in to try to avoid a shutoff. Justice First is a newly formed national grassroots organization fighting for economic justice, civil liberties and civil rights.

At a time when bankers and corporate executives are being bailed out with trillions of taxpayers’ dollars, the same politicians are turning a blind eye towards the working class and its basic needs. The energy price hikes are hitting particularly hard those living on fixed incomes, including seniors and disabled people. Many residents who do not meet qualification guidelines for federal or state assistance are facing possible shutoffs as well.

Teams of Justice First volunteers have covered the D.C. metropolitan area for the last several weeks collecting petition signatures demanding that no family have their heat and electricity shut off. The petition also demands an immediate 50 percent rollback on gas and electricity rates—rates that have more than doubled in the last four years.

Immediately after the demonstration, a Southeast D.C. resident contacted Justice First for help. He is a 51-year-old disabled man who lives alone on a fixed income of $664 a month from Social Security. His monthly rent is $469 and his debt to Pepco is nearly $350. He suffers from diabetes, and his insulin must be kept refrigerated or it will lose its potency. An electricity shutoff is a matter of life or death—literally.

Justice First has launched a campaign to ensure that his electricity remains on as part of the broader struggle against all shutoffs. Justice First is dedicated to continuing this fight, along with the people of the D.C. metropolitan area. Those who have had power shut off should have it reconnected without a fee.

The campaign is also fighting the increasing utility rates. Just today, Dominion Power, the electric service provider to most of Virginia, announced that it is seeking a 6.9 percent rate hike when more than 100,000 of its customers are at risk of a shutoff because they cannot afford to pay their bills. Dominion Power’s 2007 earnings were $2.54 billion.

Electricity and heat are not luxury items—they are rights. Stop the shutoffs! Stop the rate hikes!