On July 27, 2024, the Central Pennsylvania Energy Project worked together with community partner, Central Susquehanna Opportunities, to host the very first Energy Summit in the area at Commonwealth University- Bloomsburg. The summit featured panelists from Pennsylvania Power & Light, the Pennsylvania Office of the Consumer Advocate, the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, Geisinger Health, CSO and Temple University, and provided a space for attendees to forge community relationships and openly discuss their experiences with energy and utility issues. With a tendency to be perceived as uncommon, deliverable fuels are pivotal in energizing Pennsylvania homes but offer unique challenges to under resourced households. For example, these fuels are often unregulated by the Public Utility Commission and purchased on an “as needed” basis with a required minimum amount, leaving households who cannot afford this minimum vulnerable. The map above features our study area and the CSO service region, specifically depicting the total percentage of households that use “uncommon fuels”; the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS combined counts of households that recorded usage of oil, coal, wood or the “other fuel” type. Geographic boundaries of “uncommon fuel” percentage are organized by Census Tract and increase in red saturation as precents increase. Notable areas within our study area include: CSO, a community action agency, is a social services non-profit based in Northumberland County that employs an extensive network of case workers and various programs geared at targeting unique county-based issues. By pairing this utility data, with CSO’s contextual knowledge of local resource gaps from their extensive community outreach and case worker/ client…
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