Audio Hatch seeks big fine against Centerpoint over winter shutoffs (story audio) Photos Rebekah Miller Attorney General Mike Hatch More from MPR Centerpoint criticized for cutting off customers during big freeze (01/13/2005) Resources Attorney General Mike Hatch's office Centerpoint Energy Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

Hatch seeks big fine against Centerpoint over winter shutoffs
June 21, 2005

Rebekah Miller used space heaters and heating pads to stay warm inside her Braham mobile home because her service was disconnected well into December. She said Centerpoint waited to reconnect her even after government energy assistance covered her overdue payments. (MPR Photo/Laura McCallum)

Attorney General Mike Hatch says one of Minnesota's largest utilities deliberately violated the state's cold weather rule last winter. Hatch says about 2,500 customers of CenterPoint Energy went without heat. He's asking state regulators to fine the company $5 million. CenterPoint officials say they've always worked to comply with the cold weather rule.

St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota's cold weather rule is designed to make sure that low-income people don't have to go without heat during the winter months. It requires utilities to reconnect customers' heat between Oct. 15 and April 15, as long as they meet income requirements and agree to a payment plan.

Rebekah Miller of Braham says she met both criteria, but CenterPoint wouldn't turn on the heat to her mobile home for a couple of months and now it's uninhabitable.

"Everything froze, bust, and I'm still paying for it," said Miller. "It's a trickle-down effect. I've now lost my home and they won't let me sell it."

Miller says her pipes froze, and she had no running water. She used space heaters and heating pads to stay warm. Miller, who says she is unemployed because of a disability, says she received energy assistance to cover her overdue payments, but CenterPoint waited to reconnect her heat until well into December.

Attorney General Mike Hatch says Miller's story isn't an anomaly. He says more than 2,500 CenterPoint customers had no heat as of Oct. 15, and the company still hadn't reconnected heat for more than 1,000 customers by December.

"They took government money intended for the poor, took it for their own benefit, and then lied to the poor about the services that they should have been offered by the company," said Hatch.

Houston-based CenterPoint, which serves more than 760,000 Minnesota customers, released a statement saying the company has always worked to comply with the cold weather rule. The company is reviewing Hatch's report.

The statement says CenterPoint is "focused on resolving this matter quickly, thoroughly and to the satisfaction of state officials and our customers."

The report released by Hatch says that CenterPoint told its customer service representatives to always ask for payment in full, and offer a payment plan only as a last resort. Hatch released a recording of a call between a CenterPoint customer service representative, and a low-income woman who repeatedly asks for a payment plan, to no avail.

In the call, the customer service representative tells the woman she needs to pay $2,650 before she can be put on a payment plan.

Hatch is asking the state Public Utilities Commission to fine CenterPoint $5 million, and to make CenterPoint reimburse customers for damages such as burst pipes.

CenterPoint says it will address Hatch's allegations before the Public Utilities Commission, which it calls the proper forum for this investigation.