August, 05 2021, 09:58am EDT


For Immediate Release
Contact:
Peter Hart, Food & Water Watch, phart@fwwatch.org
Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org
Rep. Tlaib Introduces Utility Debt Cancellation Bill
Critical action is necessary to protect vulnerable families and reduce spread of COVID
WASHINGTON
Today, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced the Maintaining Access to Essential Services Act, which would provide nearly $40 billion to help wipe away household water, power and broadband debt across the country.
With the Delta variant prompting a new COVID surge, this relief is more urgent than ever to stop mounting utility debt and the shutoffs crisis. Studies have found that moratoria on utility shutoffs reduced the spread of COVID and deaths linked to the virus. One study found that a water shutoff moratorium would have prevented 500,000 COVID infections. Unfortunately, those policies have expired in most states, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework in the Senate lacks these vital protections.
This debt relief and accompanying shutoffs moratorium will go hand-in-hand with CDC's new eviction moratorium to protect struggling households and help protect against the spread of disease.
"Utility shutoffs - from water to electricity to broadband Internet - leave our most vulnerable communities without essential life sustaining services and are especially unacceptable during a deadly pandemic," Congresswoman Tlaib said. "So many of us have eviction protection on our minds right now. A study showing that low-income Michigan families pay more than 30% of their household income on utility bills alone, creating a direct path to debt and eviction, makes the issue that much more pertinent. We have to break the cycle and ensure folks can keep their lights on, their water running, and the roofs over their head. I'm so grateful for the continued partnership of the Utility Justice coalition who has fought alongside us every step of the way to end the injustice of utility shutoffs in this country."
The legislation provides $13.5 billion for water debt, $13 billion for electricity debt and another $13 billion for broadband internet debt. It also establishes reporting requirements about disconnections and arrears.
More than 275,000 people have petitioned for a utility shutoff moratorium since the beginning of the pandemic.
"Families across the country have accrued billions of dollars in water debt during this pandemic, and now, as we are in the midst of another COVID surge, they are suffering water shutoffs, a life-threatening injustice that must be stopped," said Mary Grant, the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch. "Communities urgently need the Maintaining Access to Essential Services Act to keep the water, power, and broadband on and forgive crushing household utility debt. We applaud Rep. Tlaib for her leadership on this legislation."
"Congresswoman Tlaib's Utility Debt Relief bill is a great example of legislation that centers economic and racial justice to support local recovery and prosperity," said Juan Jhong-Chung of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. "Low-income communities and communities of color in Detroit continue to be impacted by systemic racism, pollution, and the COVID pandemic. How can investor-owned utilities make record profits while our families struggle to pay monthly bills? We cannot build back better if we leave the most vulnerable behind."
"Not just as an organizer with Soulardarity, but as a consumer and a resident of Highland Park, I know how important it is that our communities get some kind of debt relief for energy, because when you're without power, or you're worried about being shut off because you don't have the finances, you are constantly in stress," said Michelle Jones, Energy Democracy Fellowship Coordinator with Soulardarity in Highland Park, Michigan. "I've been there. It's not that I didn't want to pay the bill, it's that I couldn't pay the bill. And it was the worst when I was raising my children. Parents need to know that when they need that gas, lights, heat to take care of their families, that it's there. And to know that our elected leaders have the power to make that available -- we need them to take the stress off."
"As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, it is more essential than ever that people have access to water, electricity, and broadband service. This bill is a critical first step to support low-wealth families and communities of color that have borne the brunt of compounding threats of utility shut-offs and poverty," said Alissa Weinman, Associate Campaign Director at Corporate Accountability. "This bill would direct sorely needed federal funds towards our water systems. Sustained, long-term federal investments in our infrastructure are necessary to ensure that everyone has access to clean and affordable water."
"Congresswoman Tlaib's debt relief bill will bring economic recovery to vulnerable Kansans who have been taking on the energy burden for too long," said Climate + Energy Project Program Director Beth Pauley. "The Climate + Energy Project knows we cannot pursue a just transition while so many Kansans are struggling. We need to continue to address the energy poverty crisis by implementing equitable energy efficiency and community solar programs, with impacted communities leading the policies and program implementation. Kansans need to have their basic needs met in order to organize for long term climate solutions."
"As the pandemic raged, the media and government rallied Americans by proclaiming that we were all in this together. But the reality was harsher. While we were encouraged to move our personal and professional lives online for the sake of public health, millions of us struggled to access our schools, jobs, and government and nonprofit programs because of the lack of affordable broadband access," said Amy Sample War, the CEO of NTEN. "Broadband is vital to our lives in 21st century America. To turn off someone's access is to say their participation in society isn't needed or wanted. That's not just un-American. It's unconscionable."
"Low-income New Yorkers average $1000 in utility debt, even as they are struggling under the effects of the pandemic," said Adam Flint, Director of Clean Energy Programs at the Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NEST). "This legislation will help thousands of our neighbors who already suffered from a crushing energy burden prior to the current crisis. Rep. Tlaib's debt relief bill is an important step, which should be followed by a Green New Deal to address the housing, employment and climate crises our communities face."
"With the rapid spread of the new COVID variant, we have to prevent another utility shutoffs tsunami that disproportionately harms communities of color," said Jean Su, Energy Justice Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Congress should include Rep. Tlaib's bill in the reconciliation package to ensure that no family is cut off from access to the basic human rights of power, water and broadband. It's outrageous that private fossil fuel utilities control access to these public goods. We need to invest massively in public community and rooftop-solar solutions to stop the systemic shutoffs crisis. It's time to empower communities of color, who for too long have borne the brunt of our racist and dirty energy system."
"Adequate, affordable housing is a human right, and affordable utilities are an essential part of that. Energy infrastructure doesn't just mean the power lines above us and pipes below us, but the ability for every American to get those utilities into their homes reliably and sustainably," said Eric Tars, Legal Director, National Homelessness Law Center. "We need Rep. Tlaib's Maintaining Access to Essential Services Act to ensure the health of our families in their homes, and prevent the evictions and homelessness that could spike further the already exploding Delta variant of the COVID pandemic in our most vulnerable communities. Without this bill, any larger infrastructure action that Congress takes will be incomplete."
"We are experiencing two global pandemics: the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Rep. Tlaib's debt relief bill will bring necessary relief to the many Georgians facing economic hardships and mounting utility debt," said Codi Norred, Executive Director of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL). "According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over four million Georgians are facing unemployment. As people of faith, Georgia Interfaith Power & Light believes this bill is both the moral and equitable action to take for all Americans. We cannot truly combat the climate crisis and COVID-19 when people are concerned about having air conditioning, heat, water, or gas."
"Internet service is an essential utility not only in emergencies but all of the time. With COVID cases on the rise again, we don't know what the coming months hold; but even if kids can go back to school and people can go back to work, an affordable internet connection is still a must," said Matt Wood, Vice President of Policy for Free Press Action. "Even if the health crisis were further behind us, the economic crises brought on by the pandemic only compounded the crushing debt and discriminatory impacts already faced by millions of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people across the country. Free Press Action thanks Rep. Tlaib for introducing the House version of this important bill, to keep people who are unable to pay for internet service from getting disconnected today or drowned in debt down the line."
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
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"The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn't restricted to the ocean floor: It will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it," one campaigner warned.
Apr 24, 2025
Amid global calls for a ban on deep-sea mining to protect marine ecosystems, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to advance the risky practice and "restore American dominance in offshore critical minerals and resources."
"The broad order avoids a direct confrontation with the United Nations-backed International Seabed Authority and seeks essentially to jump-start the mining of U.S. waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry," notedReuters, which had previewed the measure aimed at attaining nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, titanium, and rare earth elements.
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Trump's order directs Cabinet members including Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick—whose department oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—to expedite the permit process and work on various related reports.
"Authorizing deep-sea mining outside international law is like lighting a match in a room full of dynamite—it threatens ecosystems, global cooperation, and U.S. credibility all at once."
Deep-sea mining is opposed by over 30 countries as well as academics and advocacy groups worldwide. Among them is Greenpeace USA, whose campaigner Arlo Hemphill said Thursday that "authorizing deep-sea mining outside international law is like lighting a match in a room full of dynamite—it threatens ecosystems, global cooperation, and U.S. credibility all at once."
"We condemn this administration's attempt to launch this destructive industry on the high seas in the Pacific by bypassing the United Nations process," Hemphill declared. "This is an insult to multilateralism and a slap in the face to all the countries and millions of people around the world who oppose this dangerous industry."
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No exaggeration, deep sea mining could cause the massive collapse of the entire deep sea ecosystem and food chain. This is an existential risk to every person on this planet. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/c...
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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) April 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Ocean Conservancy vice president for external affairs Jeff Watters also blasted the move, saying that "this executive order flies in the face of NOAA's mission. NOAA is charged with protecting, not imperiling, the ocean and its economic benefits, including fishing and tourism; and scientists agree that deep-sea mining is a deeply dangerous endeavor for our ocean and all of us who depend on it."
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He highlighted that "NOAA is already being threatened by this administration's unprecedented cuts. NOAA is the eyes and ears for our water and air. NOAA provides Americans with accessible and accurate weather forecasts; it tracks hurricanes and tsunamis; it responds to oil spills; it keeps seafood on the table; and so much more. Forcing the agency to carry out deep-sea mining permitting while these essential services are slashed will only harm our ocean and our country."
"It's not just our country this executive order would harm: This action has far-reaching implications beyond the U.S.," Watters added, warning that by unilaterally allowing deep-sea mining, "the administration is opening a door for other countries to do the same—and all of us, and the ocean we all depend on, will be worse off for it."
As The New York Timesreported:
The executive order could pave the way for the Metals Company, a prominent seabed mining company, to receive an expedited permit from NOAA to actively mine for the first time. The publicly traded company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, disclosed in March that it would ask the Trump administration through a U.S. subsidiary for approval to mine in international waters. The company has already spent more than $500 million doing exploratory work.
"We have a boat that's production-ready," said Gerard Barron, the company's chief executive, in an interview on Thursday. "We have a means of processing the materials in an allied friendly partner nation. We're just missing the permit to allow us to begin."
In response to the late March disclosure—which came during International Seabed Authority negotiations—Louisa Casson, senior campaigner for Greenpeace International, said that "this is another of the Metals Company's pathetic ploys and an insult to multilateralism. It shows that a moratorium on deep-sea mining is more urgently needed than ever. It also proves that the company's CEO Gerard Barron's plans never focused on solutions for the climate catastrophe."
"The Metals Company is desperate and now is encouraging a breach of customary international law by announcing their intent to mine the international seabed through the United States' Deep-Sea Hard Mineral Resources Act," the camapigner asserted. "This comes after the Metals Company has spent years exerting immense pressure on the International Seabed Authority to try and force governments to allow mining in the international seabed—the common heritage of humankind."
Casson stressed that "states, civil society, scientists, companies, and Indigenous communities continue to resist these efforts. Having tried and failed to pressure the international community to meet their demands, this reckless announcement is a slap in the face to international cooperation."
Less than a week later, the Norwegian deep-sea mining company Loke Marine Minerals declared bankruptcy—which Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, a campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic, noted came "on the same day that we shut down a deep-sea mining conference in Bergen."
The Norwegian government in December halted plans to move forward with deep-sea mining in the Arctic Ocean, which Steve Trent, CEO and founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, had called "a testament to the power of principled, courageous political action, and... a moment to celebrate for environmental advocates, ocean ecosystems, and future generations alike."
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"It's shocking to see the U.S. abandon its leadership role in advancing global health and humanitarian efforts."
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday led calls for India and Pakistan to "exercise maximum restraint" as the nuclear-armed neighbors took tit-for-tat measures against each other in the wake of Tuesday's massacre of 26 people in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Pakistan warned India that it was committing an "act of war" by suspending the landmark Indus Waters Treaty, which allows both countries to share the vital river system's flow. Pakistan announced the suspension of trade and closed its airspace to Indian flights. Both countries closed border ports of entry, canceled visas, and took other measures against each other.
India said it was downgrading relations with Pakistan, whom it blamed for supporting "cross-border terrorism" after gunmen killed 25 Indians and one Nepali and wounded at least 17 others at a popular vacation spot in Pahalgam, Kashmir on Tuesday.
"May sanity prevail between both nations."
A front group of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed mostly tourists.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif countered that his country's government believes "very strongly" that the attack "was a false flag operation."
Speaking Thursday, Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' spokesperson,
said that "we very much appeal to both the governments of Pakistan and India to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we've seen do not deteriorate any further."
"Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement," he added.
Progressives from both sides of the border echoed calls for restraint.
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Pakistani authori and activist Ehtesham Hassan wrote that "as a Pakistani who visited India and received immense love, I am devastated by the news from Pahalgam."
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