69-year-old Vietnam vet with throat cancer freezes to death after company shuts off his gas

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/69-year-old-vietnam-vet-with-throat-cancer-freezes-to-death-after-company-shuts-off-his-gas/

69-year-old Vietnam vet with throat cancer freezes to death after company shuts off his gas
David Edwards
18 Feb 2015 at 11:15 ET

The state of Michigan has ordered Consumers Energy to issue a report after a 69-year-old Vietnam veteran died of hypothermia when his gas was shutoff during one of the coldest months of the year.

The Detroit Free Press reported that Consumers Energy shut off the gas at the home where John Skelley was living on Jan. 19. He was found frozen to death on Feb. 1.

Although the Michigan Public Service Commission prohibits companies from shutting off heat from Nov. 1 to March 31 if there is a person older than 65 living in the home, Consumers Energy insisted that it could not have known that Skelley lived in the apartment because the bill was in someone else’s name.

Consumers Energy spokesperson Deborah Dodd told the Free Press that the service had been in the name of Joseph Mixen, who had not kept up with a payment plan to resolve an outstanding $760.28 balance that dated back to March 2012.