Western Community Energy, a local government agency that sells electricity to six small towns in Southern California, has filed for bankruptcy, blaming its financial woes in part on an inability to shut off service to customers who quit paying during the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Western Community owed creditors as much as $100 million, but had less than $50 million of available assets, according to court papers filed on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, Calif.. The agency buys power wholesale and resells it to residents of Eastvale, Hemet, Jurupa Valley, Norco, Perris and Wildomar, which are cities in Riverside County on the edge of the desert. “The ongoing impacts of COVID-19 severely limited the organization’s options moving forward and forced today’s action,” said Todd Rigby, chair of Western Community and a city council member for Eastvale, a former dairy farm turned suburb. The agency said that it has been unable to shut off customers for not paying their bills under an emergency order issued by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Late bills have averaged ten times higher than before the pandemic and have cost the agency millions of dollars, Western Community said in an emailed statement.
