US heating bills up, but federal aid down

At least seven states are completely out of assistance money or will be soon.

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the March 9, 2007 edition

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NEW YORK - Even before the latest spate of arctic conditions gripped the northern half of the nation, many states were running out of money to help the disadvantaged with their heating bills.

In West Virginia, the doors to the state's energy-assistance program have been closed for a month. Iowa has sliced its heating-assistance benefit by 30 percent. And in Montana, the director of the state's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has personally fielded 50 to 100 phone calls from residents who want to know why their checks are so much smaller than last year's.

"They are asking me what's happened," says the director, Jim Nolan.

What's happened is that the number of people requiring energy-bill assistance has grown at the same time that Congress and the White House have cut funding by nearly $1 billion from last year. The combination has quickly rippled to the states, and at least seven are either completely out of money or will be shortly.

With benefits pared, concern is mounting that many people will start to receive notices that their utilities will be shut off on April 1 unless they pay their bills. To help out, some states are dipping into funds that would normally be used to help with summer cooling bills.

"There are health issues involved here," says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association (NEADA) in Washington. "Some elderly turn their thermostats down too low, afraid of having to pay high bills."

On Feb. 20, 38 US senators signed a letter to the White House asking President Bush to release about $200 million in emergency contingency funds to meet "additional energy-related needs from the extended cold wave which has covered much of the nation...."

In reply, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it is "monitoring" the weather to determine the appropriate time to release funds. "The way the information comes to us, we will not have the data to know the extent of the crisis for another few days," says Josephine Robinson, director of the US Office of Community Services, which is part of HHS. "We're still in the midst of a cold sweep, so we want to make sure we capture enough information to make sure money goes to the appropriate places."

For example, some states still have money left over from last year when funding was hiked to reflect soaring energy prices, she says.

The request for an emergency release of funding follows an estimate this week by the Energy Information Administration that raises the cost of winter heating from $873 to $898 per household, reflecting higher energy prices and the continued cold snap.

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