Electric utility disconnection policy and vulnerable populations.

When a household is energy burdened, its members may struggle to pay its energy bills and face the potential of service disconnection. While such conditions can inflict mental and physical harm on household members, more significant consequences include death from exposure to excessive heat or cold. State utility disconnection policies have the potential to protect vulnerable populations from such outcomes. In this article, we examine disconnection policies, and the immense variation that they exhibit across states. We discuss how different policy protections interact and how seemingly minor differences in policy design produce significant differences in levels of protection. We further show how a changing climate is leading to increased exposure to extreme temperatures, and discuss how policy reforms could address these risks. We conclude with a set of recommendations for how to improve the design of such protections, expand their reach, and monitor and track utility connections and disconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]