Higher Energy Forecasts, Impending Presidential Veto Make Low-Income Advocates Shiver

Recent forecasts of higher energy prices and colder months ahead have many low-wage working families concerned about how much energy they will need to stay warm this winter.

In its energy and winter fuels outlook released today, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted the average U.S. household will pay 11 percent more for heating fuels this winter than last. These official U.S government energy statistics are significantly more pessimistic than those from just a month ago.

It is impossible for low-wage workers, retirees and their families to pay bills this much higher without sacrificing food, medicine and other essentials. Millions of Americans already living from paycheck to paycheck will require assistance to cover 11 percent increases in their energy bills.

Community Action Agencies across the country that administer the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are reporting significant increases in energy assistance applications. Share your LIHEAP stories in the comments section below.

Operation Threshold, one of 18 Iowa Community Action Agencies, distributed 1,392 LIHEAP applications in October. This is up 18 percent from the number of applications distributed in October 2006. Operation Threshold, which serves three counties around Waterloo, set what may be an agency record Nov. 1, distributing 651 LIHEAP applications in a single day.

Southern New Hampshire Services, the Community Action Agency for Hillsborough County, N.H., is reporting a 4.5 percent increase in LIHEAP applications, and energy assistance requests are up 6 percent statewide.

The new energy data suggests even more households will require assistance through the winter months. Higher energy bills mean the stakes become even higher in the current Washington appropriations battle.

This week, the House and Senate are set to pass the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations conference report, which allocates 11.6 percent more for LIHEAP in 2008 than in 2007.

President Bush’s 2008 budget request contained a 17.5 percent cut in LIHEAP below 2007 funding levels, and Bush has vowed to veto the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.

With the Bush Administration unwilling to invest any more in domestic spending, Labor-HHS Appropriations Chairmen David Obey and Tom Harkin should be praised for their efforts that begin to reverse the cuts imposed on American families and communities in recent years.

Thirty-four million Americans are eligible for home energy assistance and in its best year LIHEAP assisted 6 million households. Labor-HHS must pass with a veto-proof majority to keep more families warm this winter.