President Clinton over the weekend ordered the release of anadditional $300 million in funds to help low-income households tocope with rising heating bills this winter, and announced foursteps to tackle the energy shortages and high prices in California,Washington and Oregon.

With this latest action, the federal government has released atotal of $856 million in emergency funding from the Low-Income HomeEnergy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) since last September.

The biggest state recipient of the $300 million in emergencyfunds was New York, taking in $41.13 million. It was followed byPennsylvania ($21.4 million), Illinois ($18.5 million), Michigan($18.05 million), Ohio ($15.87 million), California ($13.78million), and Massachusetts ($13.05 million).

The LIHEAP funds are specifically intended to help customersdeal with heating oil and natural gas prices, which the Departmentof Energy (DOE) projects will rise 29% and 40% respectively thiswinter.

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Clinton also orderedthe managers of all federal facilities in the Pacific Northwestregion and California to reduce their consumption of power “to themaximum extent practicable consistent with the health and welfareof [the] employees.”

He further noted DOE Secretary Bill Richardson has twice invokedan emergency order requiring generators and marketers to make poweravailable to the ravaged California market. The department hasindicated the order will be renewed for a third time when itexpires on Jan. 5.

Moreover, Clinton directed DOE and the Department ofTransportation to work cooperatively to prevent the disruption ofthe heating oil distribution system during frigid weather.Specifically, the Coast Guard was ordered to keep open shippingchannels that are prone to freezing so that heating oil barges withcritical deliveries can get through to northern ports.

Lastly, he directed the Small Business Administration to workwith its lending partners to provide help to small businessesreeling from exorbitant energy costs. For qualified businesses,short- and long-term loans will be made available to cushion theimpact of energy costs on their businesses.

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