Limited Cutoff Ban Passes

If you saw my earlier post, you'd know that the Public Utilities Commission of Texas was considering a ban on the cutoff of electrical service for past due bills. The plan proposed by proponents of the ban was more extensive than what was passed, but something's better than nothing:

The Public Utility Commission voted Friday to prohibit power companies from disconnecting some of the state’s neediest electric customers for nonpayment.

Through September, the order bars any cutoffs of low-income elderly customers and a small group of people who are certified by their doctors as medically needy. It also allows the poor to pay their bills in a more generous installment plan.

“They didn’t cover all the groups that we were hoping would be covered, but they covered definitely the most vulnerable,” said Public Counsel Suzi Ray McClellan. She runs an independent agency that argues for consumers and small business in utility cases.

This covers the people who really need it and that's what counts. If you wrote letters to the PUC in support of the ban, your efforts didn't go unnoticed.