Coalition Formed to Fight High Utility Bills

Evansville IN

21 March, 2022

11:16 AM

Description

By John Gibson, WNIN March 21, 2022 Faith, environmental, social justice, and consumer advocacy groups have formed a coalition in response to high utility bills in the Evansville area. In a release, the coalition says it's responding to what it calls the "widespread distress and hardship" caused by exorbitant CenterPoint Energy bills. The coalition consists of nearly a dozen groups, including the Audubon Society of Southwest Indiana, Citizens Action Coalition, and Congregations Acting for Empowerment and Justice – known as CAJE. The CAJE group is expected to announce Monday that its annual Nehemiah Action will focus on high utility bills. The organization gathers every year to decide which issues they'll push government leaders to act on. CenterPoint has announced it will suspend customer disconnections through May. The company also said it's working on additional measures to assist customers. The city of Evansville has extended a freeze on sewer bill increases through 2023, but water bills will rise to pay for a new treatment plant. WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.