Full Title: Landscape of Regulatory Disconnection Reform Options
Author(s): Maria Castillo, Carina Rosenbach, Katie Ebinger, and Joseph Daniel.
Publisher(s): RMI
Publication Date: July 6, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Every year, millions of US households are disconnected from essential electricity service due to nonpayment — often for small debts, with little warning, and during moments of extreme weather. These utility shutoffs are more than just financial setbacks — they pose serious risks to health, housing stability, and overall well-being, and deepen long-standing patterns of energy poverty. And the impacts ripple out: Disconnections harm not only the households affected but also utility operations, public health, and other ratepayers.
New analysis from RMI reveals the scale and severity of this growing crisis.Despite gaps in reporting, millions of utility shutoffs have been reported in the past several years. In 2023 alone, nearly 2 million disconnections were reported across just 22 states and Washington, D.C., while total arrears ballooned to $20 billion nationwide.