{"id":418639,"date":"2025-12-02T03:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418639\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T03:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:48:15","slug":"how-to-prevent-utility-shutoffs-during-winter-in-pa-nj-de","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418639\/","title":{"rendered":"How to prevent utility shutoffs during winter in PA, NJ, DE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/whyy-news-climate-desk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>WHYY News Climate Desk<\/strong><\/a>, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.\n<\/p>\n<p>From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\"><strong>Get in touch<\/strong><\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Increasingly, people across the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/new-analysis-shows-more-us-consumers-are-falling-behind-utility-bills\/18169097\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are struggling to pay their utility bills<\/a> as the price of electricity soars because of supply costs and an increased demand from sources like data centers.\n<\/p>\n<p>Gas bills are also on the rise, with Philadelphia Gas Works customers facing a <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-gas-bills-rate-hike\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$6 increase on average<\/a> to their monthly bills, starting Dec. 1.\n  <\/p>\n<p>The effects are evident in states like Pennsylvania, where utility shutoffs have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.puc.pa.gov\/media\/3726\/terminations-reconnectionsytd-oct24vs25.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increased by 21<\/a>% this year, leaving ratepayers in the dark.\n<\/p>\n<p>The termination of a person\u2019s utilities can have dire consequences, especially for kids, older ratepayers and people living with chronic health conditions.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA shutoff in a very cold month can not only lead to health consequences for the household living in very, very cold conditions, it can also lead to structural damage to the home because the loss of utilities during those times can cause pipes to burst and all sorts of other things,\u201d said Sarah Spangler Rhine, deputy director at Community Legal Aid Society in Delaware.\n<\/p>\n<p>As temperatures drop in the Philadelphia region, however, some ratepayers will be protected from shutoffs.\n<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what you need to know about winter shutoff moratorium programs in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. During this period, ratepayers will be able to keep their heat and lights on even when they\u2019re behind on their bills.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":418640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,195917],"class_list":{"0":"post-418639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa","18":"tag-utility-shutoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115647932256282007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}