Utility disconnection protections and the incidence of energy insecurity in the United States

Fleeting energy protections: State and utility level policy responses to energy poverty in the United States during COVID-19

“…This work contributes to energy justice scholarship that echoes the importance of energy disconnection protections [27] , [30] , [32] , [33] , [45] . This research sought out to understand national vulnerability to energy poverty within 25 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. by examining the response time and authorization level of COVID-19 era residential energy protections.…”

“…Energy disconnection policies and consumer protections aim to mitigate adverse effects resulting from the lack of energy; however, state and local responses to energy poverty vary across the country [27] , [29] . Memmott et al [30] find that energy protections are useful in reducing disconnections, thus mitigating coping mechanisms such as forgoing other expenses. Moreover, that energy protections benefit people of color and households with young children most [30] .…”

“…Memmott et al [30] find that energy protections are useful in reducing disconnections, thus mitigating coping mechanisms such as forgoing other expenses. Moreover, that energy protections benefit people of color and households with young children most [30] .…”

“…Even so, the scholarly literature that explores state and utility energy protections [27] , [30] , [31] in the U.S. is limited despite scholarship that has reviewed relevant COVID-19 energy responses globally [32] , [33] . We explore varying energy protection actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how subnational responses across the country are associated with energy access vulnerability and resilience.…”

Addressing energy insecurity: Policy Considerations for enhancing energy assistance programs

“…This may lead to endogeneity bias and biased logistic regression estimates. I additionally cannot account for differential respondent behaviors between or within states when seasonal or weather-based electric utility protections are in place [see e.g., [ [83] , [84] ]]. Similar limitations were noted when using the RECS in previous manuscripts [ 30 ].…”