Coalition of Northeastern Governors Urge Congress to Appropriate $5.1 Billion for LIHEAP

Governor Douglas and Coalition of Northeastern Governors Urge Congress to Appropriate $5.1 Billion for LIHEAP in FY09
Waterbury, VT (June 18, 2008)-The Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG) has urged House leaders to support $5.1 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in the FY2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.
CONEG, which is chaired by Governor Jim Douglas, is requesting that the House fund the LIHEAP block grant program at the $5.1 billion level, authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, in a manner that ensures additional funding to all states so they can continue to address the needs of the most vulnerable low-income households struggling to pay increasingly expensive home energy bills.
"No Vermonter should be cold in his or her home this winter, or any winter," said Governor Jim Douglas. "Through our new Food and Fuel Partnership, my administration is working to marshal all of Vermont's resources to ensure all our residents have access to the support they need to address rising fuel, transportation and food prices. The LIHEAP program is a critical component of our efforts to keep Vermonters warm, and we need continued federal support to ensure this program remains strong."
Cynthia D. LaWare, Secretary of the Agency of Human Services, stated: "Thanks to the financial commitments made by Governor Douglas and the Vermont legislature, our state provides the most generous LIHEAP benefit in the country, averaging approximately $1169 per household, with approximately 23,000 households served. However, we absolutely need the continued support of our federal partners to ensure this program is able to provide relief to not only Vermonters but our nation's most vulnerable, low-income households faced with dramatically increasing home energy bills."
LIHEAP funding is targeted to low-income households that are especially hard hit by high home energy costs, and an increasing number of households are in arrears to energy utilities. For the households who depend upon delivered fuels such as heating oil and propane, the outlook is particularly troubling since they lack the benefit of a utility shut-off moratorium. These households are concentrated in the Northeast, where almost 32 percent of LIHEAP recipient households rely upon delivered fuels, compared to 12.2 percent nationally, or approximately 4 percent in many warm weather states.
Even before the price of crude oil reached its recent record level, the Energy Information Administration estimated that households heating primarily with home heating oil will pay approximately $2,000 to heat their homes this year. Without an adequate LIHEAP benefit that can meet the minimum delivery requirement, these households face the prospect that a dealer will not make a delivery or will require a surcharge, further reducing the purchasing power of LIHEAP assistance.
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