Very cold weather is on the way.

It's already here.

Some would say it's a bad time to lose power, but nearly 50,000 Kentucky households had their power cut off last winter, according to records obtained by the Appalachian Citizens Law Center.

Advocates fear this winter even more could go without heat if state leaders don't intervene.

Our June Lefler has more.

Last month, 45 advocacy groups wrote to Governor Andy Beshear asking for a moratorium on utility disconnections.

This winter.

Housing, environmental and medical groups sent the letter.

A moratorium would not, involve forgiveness of past due bills that, it's still would require that people ultimately pay their bills, but it would give them time to pull their resources together to access help.

We have a mom who was scheduled to come with us, and it was just really, really upset in different ways around having her water disconnected just here recently.

It just got cut on Monday.

All due to not having these moratoriums in place.

The government shutdown and lapse in Snap benefits.

Press the issue.

When Snap benefits were paused.

Folks had to use their limited resources to buy food.

Though the federal government is running again, a federal program that helped more than 70,000 households pay winter heating bills last year is under threat.

The federal government has said that they intend to end that program.

Beshear banned winter disconnections before, but that was during the pandemic under his state of emergency powers.

His office said, quote, while other states have restrictions on service disconnections during colder months, the General Assembly has failed to pass similar efforts in Kentucky.

Kentucky is one of only eight states that doesn't have weather related utility protections baked into state law.

Utility companies have varying policies on winter, disconnects LGA and CU suspends disconnects during extreme temperatures, which are assessed daily.

Utility customers also have rights and resources.

Under state law, customers can negotiate partial payments to keep the lights on.

They can also file for a 30 day extension in cases of medical or financial hardship, and each utility must offer an assistance fund, sometimes known as winter care.

This organizer says utilities can do more for the customers that support them year round.

And so, as we do, we are asking the people who keep our lights on, who keep our food fresh, who keep us warm, who also make sure that we have running clean water to be able to give us a support, just as we support them with the rate hikes, as we support them with a deposit.

We support them as consumers to be able to to support our business.

Governor Beshear has heard these concerns.

His office says he knows that many families across our commonwealth and country are struggling with the cost of groceries, utilities and other needs.

And he invites our Kentucky families to tune in to his state of the Commonwealth address on Wednesday, January 7th, where he will outline his plans to help.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.