Our main priorities:


Well before COVID-19 hit, we know that Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and low-income communities were already struggling under the burden of high energy bills. When hit by a utility bill just $50 higher than normal, households report cutting heating and cooling, rent and mortgage payments, food, medicine, childcare, and/or eldercare.

Our communities are being hit the hardest by this pandemic - we are dying and losing jobs at higher rates. Every day, families are having to make impossible decisions between keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads, and keeping the lights on and the water running.

We believe that our access to these basic services - services we need to stay at home and stay alive in this health crisis - should not be determined by our race, our income, our gender, our ability, our citizenship status, or the language we speak at home.

    1. Keep Washington families connected to power for the duration of the pandemic and through economic recovery.

2. Erase the utility debt of low-income households.

3. Require utilities to pay their fair share. Last year, Washington’s five investor-owned utilities - which includes Puget Sound Energy - paid their top executives a total of $51 million. Yet utilities would like their customers to pay for the costs incurred in this pandemic   in the form of higher rates. This needs to change!

FAQs

    • What is the difference between private, public, and investor-owned utilities?
    • What is the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC)?
Art by Jing Wei

How Much Do Investor-Owned Utilities in Washington Profit From Ratepayers?

Five investor-owned utilities (IOUs) provide electrical and natural gas services to millions of residents and businesses across the state of Washington. They are Puget Sound Energy, Avista Utilities, Northwest Natural Gas, Pacific Power, and Cascade Natural Gas. The five IOUs, which also serve other states, exist to make a profit for their shareholders. Between them in 2019, they paid at least $395 million in dividends to shareholders. (Read more)


Research by Puget Sound Sage

What we have achieved:


Puget Sound Energy customers will remain connected to power until April 2021

In addition, Governor Inslee announced an extension of the utility shut-off moratorium until December 31, 2020. This includes all water and telecommunications utilities, as well as municipal and cooperative energy utilities not regulated by the UTC.

1,700 community members submitted testimonies to the UTC

A week before the public hearing on October 6th, advocates across our broad coalition organized community members across Washington to write to the Utilities and Transportation Commission to voice their concerns and demand that all families should stay connected to their utilities during the pandemic.

We delivered a utility shut-off notice to the Governor’s Mansion

On Thursday July 30th - two days before Governor Inslee’s moratorium on utility shut-offs was due to expire - Puget Sound Sage and Sierra Club took to Olympia to demand that the Governor keep households connected to basic utilities during the pandemic by extending the moratorium on utility shut-offs. The moratorium prohibits the disconnection of energy, water, and telecommunications utilities from Washington households due to non-payment.