New Orleans council should block gas, electricity shutoffs in winter months, groups say

With temperatures dropping, consumer advocates are urging the New Orleans City Council to flex their regulatory muscle and temporarily ban utilities from shutting off gas and electricity services for residents until March.

On Monday, organizers gathered outside City Hall to demand that council members enact a new moratorium on disconnections through March 1, pointing to rising natural gas prices — which hit a three-year high this week — and increasingly volatile weather patterns.

“No one should have to choose between heat and food, light and medicine, and survival and electricity bills,” said Frederick Bell, Jr., an organizer with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a nonprofit advocacy group, which held the event on Monday alongside the nonprofit Energy Future New Orleans Coalition.