Greedy Utility Companies Needlessly Cut Power

Utility companies with COVID money while shutting off power for customers. John Iadarola and Jason Carter break it down on The Damage Report. 

"When the pandemic hit in early 2020 and music studios around Detroit closed, Oliver Owens, a producer and entrepreneur, saw his income dwindle and bills grow.

By late April, the single father of three faced $243 in electric debt, and DTE Energy, Michigan’s largest utility, cut power to his east side townhome, leaving him “stressed” and scrambling for assistance from family members and local non-profits.

“I kind of felt like I let myself down and my children at the same time,” the 42-year-old told the Guardian."

#TheDamageReport #JohnIadarola #TheYoungTurks

[jimmymartin]

I’m sick and of hearing this CEO’s and corporate paddling their pockets and not taking care of the people paying their bills and not even trying to update the utilities from further breakdown

[tylerhackner]

Get these public utility companies out of the greedy owners hands

[garyburke]

The most addictive substance is not a drug, it is money. Most poor people never get enough to get addicted. Politicians are showered with lobbying money.

[beckyd]

They should either have to give the money back or be prosecuted just like the individual citizens who took COVID $$ they weren't entitled to. Individual citizens are being prosecuted, why not these companies?

[muskyoxes]

If only we could have seen this coming. If only there was recent history, say in 2008 or so, when there was a worldwide economic disaster and all the bailout money just went to executive bonuses. Then we could have known better.

[donna]

That's exactly what they are doing. It happens here. 2 days the electric was out. All my homemade gnocchi, perogies, turned to mush that I froze, not counting, my tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, homemade squash & pumpkin from the garden & frozen veggies I had to throw out. Needless to say, I was p*ssed.
🤬🤬🤬🤬

[jrblackstar]

Power Companies charge outrageous rates when their actual cost of production and maintenance is far less than what they rake in. And they're given government handouts on top of everything.

[lwells]

What a cruel way to treat your custumers. I think that money would have been better spent converting those properties to clean energy. Co-op windmills and solar panels.

[BernicePanders]

I'm stuck in a toxic Michigan HUD apt alone & with no car to live in when I get evicted, 30 days after my power gets cut on the 18th. It was only the stimulus checks that kept it on this long, and now I've got zero options left.
Thanks to the richest country in the world, I AM DY!NG FASTER FROM POVERTY THAN FROM MY DOZEN CHRONIC & TERMINAL ILLNESSES!!
💸⏰☠

[jenniferlindsey]

I’m so glad that Ontario has a law preventing utilities from disconnecting services during the winter months.

[janeayre]

They got the money and deposited it in off shore accounts.

[jeffmagnato]

This is happening in Puerto Rico right now. Abuses from LUMA the only electric company in the Island and to whom the Governor of PR sold the grid that formally the Govt controlled.

[karmaism]

Duke Energy in FL....cut my electric off the coldest week in Florida last year! 2020 I needed one more extension to get caught up and they said no! That's a heck of a thing to do to an elderly person! I had to sleep in my car with my two little dogs also, turn the heat on and off all night long, for 5 days, just to stay warm! That's messed up!

[Junksaint]

I believe there are monsters in the world, born to regular men and women, destined to destroy and wreak havoc on humanity at every opportunity.

[commonsense.]

My lge company. Sent out a letter that their going for a %10 increase in price.
Because, and this is the funniest part. Because people aren't using enough power.
Me yeah people are poor so therefore their trying to save money.

[DPowered]

If im a business and you are giving me money and not making me do anything then ill take the money and still do what i want because why not

[irishlady]

Wow, and they keep sending me notices for 150.00, the govt should have stipulated that our debts were cancelled before they gave out money....

[kalapanaguy]

That’s the norm f the people the big corps need their greed

[stevesloan]

It means a massive transfer of wealth from the have nots to the haves. Through the tax levy. Every corporate welfare bailout resulted in the same thing. The banks bailout, the savings and loans bailout, the Chrysler and GM bailout, etc. A no strings attached bailout always results in the people getting very little or nothing. This is no accident. The Congress does this on purpose. They surely know after all this time what the no strings attached bailouts will do and where the money will really end up. The Congress was bought off decades ago. They are acting in their owners' best interests, as usual.

[greenjelly]

This is why the govt. should give the money directly to the people.