D.C. residents behind on paying their electric bills at a time of skyrocketing costs would not have to worry about shutoffs under a 90-day moratorium that the D.C. Council passed Tuesday.
The moratorium, passed on an emergency basis and in a divided vote, would prevent Pepco from disconnecting customers’ electricity for nonpayment of bills totaling less than $1,000. It passed after significant debate, with some lawmakers fearing the three-month pause could set a bad precedent and exacerbate arrearages while others saw it as urgently needed relief.
The move follows a recent ruling from the D.C. Court of Appealsthrowing out a rate hike that caused electric bills to increase over a two-year period. While the electricity rates remain under review and could change, lawmakers who supported the moratorium argued that residents struggling to pay their bills should not face electricity disconnection in the meantime.
“No one in the District of Columbia should lose electricity while we are still figuring out whether the bills they received were even properly justified in the first place,” said Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), a mayoral candidate who introduced the bill. “For far too many residents, this is not just strain on their finances — it’s a breaking point, and we have to act to ensure families in the District remain stable.”
The measure must still be signed by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who said Tuesday she opposed it — another example of the stark contrasts between her and the democratic socialist lawmaker vying to replace her. Bowser is not seeking reelection.
“This emergency legislation will not solve the problem; it will just shift the costs to other paying customers,” Bowser wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “Moratoriums put DC out of step with the region, and they simply do not work at lowering costs.”
The measure passed 8-5; it was not immediately clear whether Bowser would veto it.
Lewis George’s legislation is also politically opportune: The universality of the wallet squeeze has turned the issue into an unlikely flash point in the race for mayor. Both Lewis George and her chief opponent, former longtime council member Kenyan R. McDuffie, have pledged to offer voters relief on their utility bills if elected. And both have turned up the heat on the issue, with Lewis George charging McDuffie failed to provide adequate oversight of utility rate hikes when he had that role on the council and McDuffie questioning what she has done about it.
According to Pepco, about 144,000 D.C. customers are in arrears, owing on average $600. About 36,000 customers in D.C. owe more than that.
On Tuesday, Lewis George found support from colleagues who agreed that the situation and its impact on families demanded action from lawmakers— although many were skeptical of her initial proposal seeking a blanket moratorium for customers regardless of how much was owed. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who now has oversight of utility issues, offered an amendment that satisfied some of the concerns, narrowing eligibility for protection to only those whose arrearages were under $1,000.
“The most unfair outcome we can have here is for someone to experience a disconnection based on an amount they should have never paid to Pepco in the first place,” Allen said.
Others worried that the temporary moratorium could incentivize people not to pay their electric bills, causing them to accrue even more debt by the time the moratorium ends. “I’m not sure what we’re accomplishing, and I think it’s a bad road for us to go on,” said Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D).
He and council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) compared the situation to the pandemic-era eviction moratorium, which lawmakers have since acknowledged had unintended consequences that contributed to a destabilized rental market.
“There was a period of time when we said there could be no evictions, and while there were people who could afford to pay their rent, they did not, and we got caught up in a situation,” Henderson said. “And I feel like if we’re not careful with this, we’re going to get caught up in a situation in terms of utilities.”
Lewis George said that people should still be paying their bills or entering payment plans — though the legislation’s opponents were unpersuaded that her measure would encourage people to do that.
Henderson and Mendelson voted against the moratorium, along with council members Doni Crawford (D-At Large),Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7) and Matthew Frumin (D-Ward 3).
Valencia McClure, Pepco’s senior vice president of governmental, regulatory and external affairs, said in an interview that Pepco opposed the legislation. Those who enter into payment plans are protected from shutoffs, and the utility also offers relief or debt-forgiveness programs for people who fall behind, she said.
“When you have a moratorium, it’s delaying the debt — it’s not a debt forgiveness — which then escalates the amount that a customer has to pay,” McClure said. Those costs, she said, then end up being spread among other customers.
Costs have been increasing over the last several years for a variety of reasons.
The bulk of the electric rate increases have stemmed from an acute supply and demand problem: Huge data centers in the region are eating up electricity to power the rise of artificial intelligence, in turn driving up demand. Yet at the same time, older generation power supply such as coal plants are being been phased out as renewable sources such as wind and solar are still coming online. The result: Electricity costs a lot more for Pepco to procure today than even a few years ago.
Further exacerbating costs, Pepco is also working on major infrastructure projects to strengthen an aging electrical grid. Those costs, which Pepco says make up about a quarter of customers’ bills, are passed onto customers in the form of rate hikes — and are now at the center of litigation.
Earlier this month, the D.C. Court of Appeals vacated a $123 million rate hike for Pepco between 2024 and 2026, finding that the Public Service Commission — which regulates the utility companies — failed to hold proper hearings before approving the increase.
The Office of the People’s Counsel and the Apartment and Office Building Association, which sued the commission, have called for Pepco to return to prior rates and refund customers the difference. Pepco is opposing those calls, arguing it could cause “whiplash” for customers if rates change again.
A hearing is set for May 12.
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