KEEP THE 'HEAT' ON TENNEESSEE
"Utilities are allowed to price-gouge those least able to pay, thanks to deregulation which removed rate caps that previously existed to protect the public from price-gouging. The poor are the one group that you’re allowed to discriminate against in America. Senator David Sibley (R-TX), who co-sponsored the Texas deregulation bill, defended unfair rate tiering and its implications for the poor. Sibley said, “People who do not pay their bills are not going to enjoy the same rates as everybody else. We wanted them [the poor] to have electricity, but they don’t have a right to electricity at the same rates as everyone else.”
We, the citizens of the State of Tennessee, demand adoption of the Cold Weather Rule and Utility Customer's Bill of Rights, to protect the consumers from utility companies who are only concerned with profits and not people.There is no law that protects the consumer against the unfair policies of the utility companies and as a result, the poor, elderly and disabled are going without heat during the coldest months of the year and may lose their lives because of utility company greed. We intend to stop this differential treatment of the less fortunate. We call on the politicians to protect the consumers in Tennessee by passing these laws and stopping the discrimination against the poor by utilities.
