Utilities respond with help during the federal government shutdown
To help ease the difficulty of the recent U.S. government shutdown on federal workers—at least when it came to paying their gas bills—natural gas utilities offered welcome assistance.
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation provided a new grant through its SHARING Program, a nonprofit organization that provides funds to customers who require financial assistance to pay their gas bills or to repair their gas appliances.
“We added the new grant for individuals impacted by the government shutdown as a proactive measure, knowing that Dover Air Force Base, one of the region’s largest employers, is right in our backyard,” said Shane E. Breakie, assistant vice president for Chesapeake Utilities and president of the Chesapeake Emergency Energy Recipient Program, which oversees the SHARING Program.
Nearly a dozen customers applied for the one-time-per-year credit of up to $200 toward their bill. “In many cases, this is enough to actually pay a customer’s bill for a month or two, depending on their energy usage,” Breakie told American Gas.
The program will be available through the end of the year in the event there are other shutdowns, he said.
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation also partnered with the Food Bank of Delaware to host three mobile food pantries throughout Delmarva to distribute food to families affected by the shutdown.
“In this case, we saw an immediate need and took action to help families impacted by the government shutdown,” Stephen C. Thompson, senior vice president for Chesapeake Utilities, told American Gas.
Summit Natural Gas of Maine Inc. offered to waive late fees for federal workers.
“When ... you're working with a federal agency that’s suffering through a furlough, you're probably talking to somebody who is not getting paid,” Kurt Adams, Summit Natural Gas of Maine’s president, said in a Maine Public article. “And in our view, they work for all of us. We should all do our part to help them out.”
Spire Energy pledged similar assistance in a website message, and several hundred customers responded, Jenny Barth, manager, external communications at Spire, told American Gas.
“They were relieved to know that we would help them,” she said. “With all the uncertainty around when they would get paid, it was a comfort to know that they would continue to have a warm house, water and food.”