May, 02 2022, 10:33am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org
Shravya Jain-Conti, BailoutWatch, sjain@climatenexus.org
Report: Electric Utilities Shut Off Power 3.6 Million Times While Increasing Payouts to Shareholders, Executives
WASHINGTON
Electric utilities have disconnected U.S. households more than 3.5 million times since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while shareholder returns and executive compensation have skyrocketed, according to Powerless in the Pandemic 2.0, a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch.
The massive wave of power shutoffs preceded Russia's war on Ukraine, which has led to high volatility in fossil gas prices that may put more families at risk of disconnection. Changes in gas prices generally pass through to utility customers rather than utilities, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"It's appalling that millions of families in the United States have lost electricity while utility oligarchs reap huge windfall payouts," said Jean Su, director of the Center's energy justice program. "Russia's war on Ukraine has only heightened household energy fragility and put more folks at risk. This moment is a clarion call to the federal government to reform the broken utility power sector, which relentlessly puts profits over people and the planet."
"Utility companies are deliberately prolonging their dependence on fossil fuels and passing volatile fuel prices on to consumers," said Chris Kuveke, data analyst at BailoutWatch and principal of Tiger Moth LLC. "Our research shows that millions of Americans are disconnected when they can't pay their monthly electric bills, while these utilities pass windfall profits to shareholders and executives through dividends and bonuses."
The report's key findings:
- Households had their power shut off more than 3.6 million times between January 2020 and December 2021, with an increase of 79% between 2020 and 2021.
- A 12-member Hall of Shame -- including utility holding companies NextEra Energy (parent of Florida Power & Light), Duke Energy, Southern Company (parent of Georgia Power), Exelon (parent of Pepco), and DTE -- perpetrated 87% of all documented disconnections. These companies shut off customers more than 3 million times in 2020 and 2021 while increasing shareholder payouts by $1.9 billion, or 13%. Those shareholder payout increases could have forgiven the unpaid bills five times over.
- Eight Hall of Shame companies laid off employees while increasing executive compensation by an average of 24%.
- Five states accounted for 69% of all disconnections: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
- Only 33 states and Washington, D.C., require utilities to disclose disconnections. There is no federal oversight to address this lack of transparency. Though this report presents the most exhaustive data set available, it covers a fraction of the people affected.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently demanded that top utility companies answer for their high customer shutoff rates during Covid-19.
In September 2021 the Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch published Powerless In the Pandemic: After Bailouts, Electric Utilities Chose Profits Over People, which found that electric utilities had shut off the electricity of poor U.S. households nearly 1 million times during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing the likelihood people would become sick and die.
A recent analysis by InfluenceMap showed that top private utilities have actively fought to obstruct climate policy that would rein in carbon pollution. Utility companies Southern Company and First Energy top the list for both high disconnection rates and actions taken against climate policy progress.
At 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.
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Workers in 600+ US Cities to Protest 'Billionaire Takeover' on May Day
"Billionaires are attacking unions and immigrants because they fear our collective power. But we're not afraid."
Apr 24, 2025
As labor unions and rights advocacy groups announced a mass mobilization planned for May 1, or May Day, one leader said the protests aim to "send a loud and clear message" to U.S. President Donald Trump, his adviser Elon Musk, "and the rest of the billionaire oligarchs trying to destroy our democracy."
"There will be no business as usual while they are disappearing people off the street, slashing critical services, and taking away our freedoms," said Saqib Bhatti, executive director of Bargaining for the Common Good. "They're causing a crisis in our communities. We're going to bring that crisis directly to their doorsteps."
The protests will take place in over 600 cities in all 50 states, said organizers, with advocates demanding an end to Trump's "billionaire agenda"—one characterized by plans to slash Head Start, Medicaid, and Social Security in order to secure $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the richest Americans.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who Trump named to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, has provoked nationwide outrage with his cuts to more than 280,000 federal jobs, while the president's push to root out pro-Palestinian advocacy—which his administration has explicitly conflated with antisemitism and support for terrorism—has resulted in the arrests of several student organizers.
The president's deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, under which he has expelled hundreds of migrants—many of whom had no criminal records—to a notorious prison, has also garnered outrage among Americans and human rights groups.
"Our communities are mobilizing for May Day because we want a world where it's workers, students, immigrants, and working-class communities who thrive."
"Billionaires are attacking unions and immigrants because they fear our collective power. But we're not afraid," said Jade Kelly, president of Communication Workers of America (CWA) 7799, a coalition of unions in Colorado. "Our labor movement is building something stronger than fear. May Day isn't a holiday, it's a call to action for workers across the world. Across the nation, we're reclaiming May Day in the spirit it was born, in solidarity with immigrants, in defense of all working people who make our schools run, our hospitals heal, our trains move, and our cities thrive."
The May Day protests will call for:
- An end to the billionaire takeover and corruption under the Trump administration;
- Full funding for public schools, healthcare, and housing for all;
- Protection and expansion of Medicaid, Social Security, and other critical social programs;
- An immediate halt to attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans, and other targeted communities; and
- Union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.
Rallies are planned in New York, the District of Columbia, Chicago, and Atlanta, among other cities.
Loan Tran, co-director of Rising Majority, said Trump and the billionaires who will benefit from his policies want Americans "to abandon our neighbors in favor of a future where only the ultra wealthy and political elites profit."
"Our communities are mobilizing for May Day because we want a world where it's workers, students, immigrants, and working-class communities who thrive; and a democracy where activists like Mahmoud Khalil can exercise their free speech while advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza or demanding that our government invest in housing, education, and healthcare for all instead of weapons and bombs," said Tran.
"On May Day," Tran added, "these attacks will be met with our people power, and we will fight for a real democracy in the U.S. that prioritizes the well-being of all people and the planet."
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DNC Chair Takes Aim at Vice Chair David Hogg's Push for Primary Challengers
"There are some effective people in our party; there are certainly some who are failing to meet the moment and know it's time for them not to seek reelection," Hogg told The Washington Post's daily podcast.
Apr 24, 2025
Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg rankled some in the party when he announced last week that he intends to support primary challenges to "asleep-at-the-wheel" Democrats in safe-blue seats—and now DNC Chair Ken Martin has rebuked Hogg and is poised to offer him what amounts to an ultimatum.
According to Martin, Hogg's effort could threaten the perceived neutrality of the DNC.
"You can't be both the player and the referee. Our job is clear cut: let voters vote, and once they've made their choice, to fight like hell to get that Democrat elected to office," wrote Martin in a column forTime published on Thursday.
Martin also invoked an episode from DNC history, when revelations like leaked emails cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality in the 2016 primary race between then-presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, in favor of Clinton.
"The controversy alienated even our party's most loyal supporters who felt that party bosses, not Democratic primary voters, were deciding which candidate would emerge in the general election as the Democratic nominee," Martin wrote of that moment.
Martin also said that in the coming days, he plans to introduce reforms that will codify "principles of neutrality and fairness in our official party rules," including requiring party officers to stay neutral in Democratic primaries.
The outlet NOTUS was first to report Wednesday that Martin was planning to unveil this requirement, citing an unnamed senior official. Currently officers must remain neutral in presidential races.
Politico framed the move as an ultimatum, and wrote that "if passed by DNC members at their August meeting, [it] would effectively force Hogg to choose between remaining a party vice chair or stepping back from the group he co-founded, Leaders We Deserve."
Hogg, a gun reform activist and survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, intends to support primary bids through Leaders We Deserve. The political action committee has pledged to spend $20 million to support challengers.
According to The Washington Post, Hogg has already identified some of the incumbents he would like to see gone and is recruiting people to mount bids against them.
"There are some effective people in our party; there are certainly some who are failing to meet the moment and know it's time for them not to seek reelection. Whether that's because they're too old, for example, or if that's just because they aren’t able to meet it," Hogg told Colby Itkowitz on "Post Reports," the newspaper's podcast. "Because frankly, unfortunately, sucking is something that is not limited to age."
Hogg said he would not support challenges to Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and Steny Hoyer (D-M.D.)—but did not name the incumbents he had in mind to challenge.
On Wednesday, the progressive group Our Revolution announced results from a survey which showed that there's support among progressive and Democratic-leaning voters for primarying establishment Democrats who "lack grassroots energy or urgency."
"Our Revolution polling shows Hogg's sentiment is shared by a large majority of engaged progressive voters," the group said.
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Number of Jailed Writers Increases Worldwide for Sixth Consecutive Year
"We are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries," said PEN America.
Apr 24, 2025
A report released Thursday by the free expression group PEN America detailed how authoritarian regimes around the world, recognizing "the role that writers play in promoting critical inquiry and cultivating visions of a better, more just world," jailed more journalists and writers last year than ever before.
The number of imprisoned writers has ticked up each year since the group began its yearly Freedom to Write Index six years ago. In 2024, the index recorded 375 writers in prison across 40 countries—up from 339 writers who were detained in 33 countries the previous year.
The group observed startling trends in governments' crackdown on freedom of expression last year. The number of women imprisoned for their writing rose, with women making up 16% of those incarcerated last year, compared with 15% in 2023 and 14% in 2022.
Writers classified as "online commentators" accounted for 203 imprisoned authors last year, while 127 journalists were jailed for their work. Other professions represented in the index include literary writers, poets, songwriters, and creative artists.
"The high numbers of writers in the online commentator and journalist categories suggest that a significant proportion of the cases included jailing or other threats because of their writing commentary on politics or official policies, economic or social themes, or advocacy for a range of human rights," reads the report.
China and Iran are the biggest jailers of writers, with the two countries accounting for 43% of imprisoned writers worldwide.
Other top offenders include Saudi Arabia with 23 writers, Israel with 21, Russia with 18, and Belarus with 15.
"Authoritarian regimes are desperate to control the narrative of history and repress the truth about what they are doing. That is why writers are so important, and why we see these regimes attempting to silence them," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America's director of writers at risk. "Jailing one writer for their words is a miscarriage of justice, but the systematic suppression of writers around the world represents an erosion of free expression—which is often the precursor to the destruction of other fundamental human rights."
The index includes all cases in which writers are detained for at least 48 hours in its accounting of jailed writers. The report notes that as in previous years, PEN America observed an increase in the number of writers held without charge or in pre-trial detention, with 80 such cases last year—up from 76 in 2023.
The majority of writers held in administrative and pre-trial detention—"tools of repression," the report says—were detained by officials in China, Egypt, and Israel.
The index highlighted a number of cases of jailed writers, including:
- Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur economist and blogger who "has been detained incommunicado since 2017" after being sentenced to life in prison by a court in Umruqi, China in 2014;
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women's rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi, who was among several women attacked by Iranian military forces and prison guards at Iran's Evin prison in August 2024; and
- Mahmoud Fatafta, a Palestinian columnist who was arrested in May 2024 by Israeli security forces in the West Bank while traveling with his 10-year-old son, with authorities citing his Facebook post in which he quoted Egyptian scholar Abdul Wahab al-Mesiri: "The more brutal the colonizer becomes, the nearer his end is."
Fatafta's arrest came amid Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza and the West Bank, which has provoked outcry by international human rights groups, including in Israel and the United States.
The U.S. was not named as a country of concern in the index, but PEN America pointed to "recent developments in the United States," with the Trump administration revoking visas of foreign students who have protested the government's support for Israel and detaining several student organizers, as evidence of "the precarious nature of freedom of expression."
"The suppression of free expression has taken on an especially troubling dimension on college campuses where Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices are being silenced, including via attempts to deport student activists, limiting discourse on issues of the war in Gaza and human rights," reads the report.
PEN America noted that Columbia student organizers Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk were apparently detained "purely on the grounds of speech protected by the U.S. Constitution," with Ozturk targeted specifically because she co-authored an opinion piece for a student newspaper.
Their detention, said the group, "not only undermines academic freedom but also stifles the critical exchange of ideas."
"As geopolitics continue to shift and authoritarian tendencies spread to countries that were once considered safely anchored in openness," said PEN America, "we are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries."
Karlekar said that writers like those who have been detained in the last year "represent a threat to disinformation and encourage people to think critically about what is going on around them."
"War, conflict, and attacks against the free exchange of information and ideas go hand in hand with lies and propaganda," said Karlekar. "With the index, we want to alert the world to the jailing and mistreatment of these 375 writers. Each and every one of them should be released, and we insist that the world's jailers of writers end this repression and abuse."
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