The American Gas Association (AGA) has called on President Bush to “release immediately” $300 million in emergency assistance to help pay the winter energy bills of low-income customers under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and to support a minimum of $2 billion for the winter-assistance program in fiscal year 2003 when Congress returns in January.

The blizzard that swept across much of the nation earlier this month, causing ice storms and up to 10 inches of snow in some areas, and forecasters’ predictions of a severe winter ahead “makes the release of LIHEAP emergency assistance especially critical,” wrote AGA President David Parker in a Dec. 6 letter to the president.

“Ice storms in the South caused power outages in over one million homes. Snowfall and cold temperatures across the Northeast and Midwest have increased demand for LIHEAP. In Chicago, [10,000] people are without natural gas service because, in many cases, low- and fixed-income consumers still have not recovered fully from the extreme cold and high energy prices of two years ago. Charitable fuel funds in Detroit have seen demand for LIHEAP assistance steadily increase since November, and their emergency assistance funding is nearly depleted.”

A survey by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association has said the Bush administration’s proposal to cut LIHEAP spending to $1.4 billion from $1.7 billion would result in 400,000 fewer families being served by the program, Parker noted. At the same time, the Energy Information Administration in its October Short-Term Energy Outlook projected that household energy expenditures will rise 19% for natural gas, 45% for heating oil and 22% for propane this winter, he said. This could result in an increase of $100 to $300 per household in annual heating costs.

In addition to the $300 million in emergency assistance, “federal funding for LIHEAP must be restored to a minimum of $2 billion” in 2003, Parker said.

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