Voters Strongly Support Banning Utility Junk Fees and Using Ratepayer Funds for Political Activities
By Grace Adcox and Catherine Fraser
In recent years, consumers across the country have seen their monthly electric and gas utility bills steadily climb, despite declining per capita residential energy consumption over recent decades. While some have pointed to the costs of retrofitting dated grid infrastructure, damage caused by extreme weather events, and international conflict as culprits behind these higher energy costs, utility industry lobbying and additional fees tacked onto monthly statements may also help explain some of the sticker shock that American ratepayers are facing today.
Data for Progress recently surveyed national likely voters to understand how they respond to their utility companies taking lobbying action, as well as to examine whether voters would support preventing utility companies from charging punitive late and reconnection fees on customer utility bills.
At a baseline, 61% of voters report having a favorable view of their utility company, including 60% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and 68% of Republicans.
When asked about their utility company’s job performance, voters approve of their providers’ handling of issues regarding energy reliability and access. More than three-quarters of respondents (76%) rank their utility company as either doing somewhat or very well at ensuring their customers have reliable access to energy, followed by 71% who say their utility handles responding quickly to customer issues with energy access somewhat or very well.
Generally, around half of voters report their utilities are handling the additional issues described in the survey well; however, we observe somewhat more divided perspectives on how utilities are managing the issue of energy cost. Just over half of respondents (51%) say their utility is doing well at ensuring customers have affordable energy bills, with 38% saying their utility company handles this issue somewhat or very poorly — the lowest margin of approval (+13 points) among the issues tested.
Voters are more uncertain — relative to the issues of reliability, access, and cost — about how, or if, their utility company is handling advertising about its business practices and rates (19% “don’t know”), upgrading aging power grid infrastructure (23%), creating jobs in the local community (29%), transitioning to clean energy (31%), and influencing policies that impact utility companies (40%). These results suggest that voters may not have direct knowledge or experience seeing their utility companies taking action on these issues.
In addition to charging for monthly energy usage, utility companies may also charge customers punitive fees for late bill payments or reconnection to the power supply after successive instances of nonpayment. Low-income Americans who face a higher energy burden, meaning that they pay a higher proportion of their household income to meet their home energy needs, are particularly impacted by late and reconnection fees. Additionally, programs meant to subsidize energy costs for low-income families like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program consistently run out of funding each year, resulting in these charges accruing to the families that can least afford it.
The survey used a randomized split test to assess attitudes toward banning late and reconnection fees. Respondents were shown either a standard framing or a framing that used the term “junk fees” to describe late and reconnection fees, before being asked whether they think utility companies should or should not be banned from charging customers for these fees.
The results show that a majority of voters across both halves of the split support banning late and reconnection fees, with 61% in favor of banning these fees under the standard framing, and three-quarters in favor of banning these charges when described as junk fees, reflecting that this terminology may be more impactful when communicating about the issue.
Voters also indicate strong support for preventing utility companies from using ratepayer funds collected from monthly statements and fees for political activities, including lobbying, advertisements, and trade association membership dues. When given a brief description of how utility providers use customer funds for lobbying efforts, which may in turn increase utility bills further, nearly three-quarters of voters support lawmakers adopting a policy to prevent the use of ratepayer dollars for this purpose. Notably, this policy enjoys wide support across party lines, with 69% of Republicans, 72% of Independents, and 74% of Democrats in support.
These survey results reflect that voters across the electorate have positive views of their utility provider and its handling of some issues, like reliability and energy access. Voters’ awareness of their utility company’s lobbying and advertising efforts may be more limited, but after being informed about these actions, they are broadly supportive of banning utilities from using ratepayer funds for political purposes. Finally, a majority of voters would support banning utility companies from charging punitive late and reconnection fees, with voters expressing strong support for this action when the term “junk fees” is used to describe these charges.
Grace Adcox (@GraceAdcox) is the Senior Climate Strategist at Data for Progress.
Catherine Fraser (@cathwfraser) is the Senior Climate and Energy Program Associate at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From March 15 to 17, 2024, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,196 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.