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| Northwest Federation of Community Organizations |
| TAKING ACTION, MAKING CHANGE |
| OUR AFFILIATES: Idaho Community Action Network | Montana People´s Action | Oregon Action | Washington Citizen Action |
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ICAN FIGHTS FOR EQUALITY FOR ALL IDAHO'S UTILITY CUSTOMERS Idaho’s Public Utilities Districts, run by city governments around the states, should be more responsive to their customers’ needs than private utilities, because their customers are also taxpayers and voters. But these utilities, feeling the pinch of increased fuel prices, are passing their problems on to low-income residents through their collection and shutoff practices. These utilities are not regulated by any state agency, and make their own rules. ICAN members in three communities, Rupert, Burley, and Heyburn, are working to educate their communities about the shutoff problems. Their goal is to convince the city councils to pass stronger consumer protections. ICAN members started by attending city council meetings to discuss the problem with the city council. When the cities said that they could not strengthen the shutoff rules as ICAN members asked because of financial difficulties, ICAN made public disclosure requests for information about the financial shape of the utilities and about the utilities’ shutoff practices. ICAN members also visited one city hall to pay members’ utility bills with pennies, to highlight the difficulties low-income residents are having scraping together enough money to pay the utility bills and to demand that the city release public information about the utility and shutoff practices. Here are some links to materials ICAN has used in the campaign: Postcard 1 (pdf) and Postcard 2 (pdf) for members to send to the mayor of Rupert urging the city to adopt the PUC’s rules. >> Talking Points for the Rupert penny action (pdf) >> Media advisory for the Rupert penny action (pdf) >> Press Release for the Rupert penny action (pdf) >> Fact sheet for the Rupert penny action (pdf) In an effort to address the problem statewide, ICAN introduced legislation to require all of the PUDs to comply with the PUC’s customer relations rules. Here’s the bill we proposed: >> PUD customer relations draft bill (pdf) |
Northwest Federation of Community Organizations
1265 S Main, Ste 305 // Seattle, WA 98144
tel: 206.568.5400 // fax: 206.568.5444 // nwfco@nwfco.org