Families across the country are feeling the pinch from unaffordable utility bills, price volatility, and piling debt. On top of this, recent flooding, heat waves, and other climate disasters deepen the cracks in our fragile utility system, with more and more families at risk of losing access to water, electricity, broadband, and other essential services. Utilities are life-saving services yet increasingly under threat.
Throughout the pandemic, millions saw their utilities shut off by profit-driven utilities. This crisis sparked a long overdue conversation about essential utility services — that access to water, electricity, and broadband are human rights. Unfortunately, the reality is that access to these services has been under attack for a long time. That’s because our increasingly privatized, profit-driven utility system is at odds with the very nature of serving the public interest and providing a public good.
Even more, this struggle doesn’t hit equally - communities of color and low-wealth communities are disproportionately burdened by this injustice.
Our utility model is incapable of providing Americans with a basic human right — and now it’s time to change that. That’s why we're calling on Congress to recognize that access to utilities is a human right. Join NTEN and over 230 organizations supporting the Resolution Recognizing the Human Rights to Utilities (H.Res.1364), led by Representatives Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and Jamaal Bowman.
(Note: Please ignore the September 14 deadline on the form. Organizations are still invited to add their name to the endorsement.)
