A bipartisan group of 36 senators has called on Appropriations Committee leaders to set aside $600 million in emergency funding to assist senior citizens and low-income families with soaring energy costs this upcoming winter.

As the public faces “record high prices for oil, natural gas and propane this winter,” the senators asked that emergency funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) be included in the fiscal 2004 Supplemental Appropriations bill or another spending measure that can be signed by President Bush by Oct. 1.

Congress last year approved $1.8 billion in LIHEAP funds for 2004, plus $100 million in emergency funding, but the monies are gone, according to Bill Wicker, a spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The fiscal 2005 appropriations for LIHEAP ($1.9 billion, plus $100 million in emergency funding) has cleared the House but has not yet passed the full Senate, and “is not likely to become law before the beginning of the winter,” he said.

“This situation warrants the provision of emergency LIHEAP funding in an appropriations bill that will be signed shortly as it may be our last opportunity to act before the winter cold sets in,” the group of senators wrote to Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Ranking Member Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV).

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting that heating a home with natural gas will cost an average of $1,010 this winter; while heating oil will cost $1,114, and propane $1,335, the senators said. “These predicted increases come on top of soaring energy prices over the past several years.”

Compared to the average heating costs from 1998 to 2000, “expenditures this winter are expected to be 49% higher for natural gas, 48% higher for heating oil, and 38% higher for propane,” the senators noted. “Families are facing an energy emergency that requires an immediate response.”

The current rise in energy prices, along with energy debt remaining from last winter, are leading to increased disconnections and arrears among customers as the winter heating season approaches, they said.

“The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that 25,000 customers in the We Energies service area are currently disconnected and that number is expected to grow to 70,000 by the end of the year. In Pennsylvania, customer utility debt rose 5% in the first six months of 2004 to a record $564 million. In Iowa, the Energy Office is reporting that as of July 2004, 161,390 accounts are past due with 46,599 accounts issued disconnection notices. In Maine, the state received 45,700 applications for assistance last year, but expects at least 60,000 requests this coming winter, and the statewide average price for heating oil is currently $1.63 per gallon, a $0.38 increase above early October of last year. In Rhode Island, home heating oil was selling at an average price of $1.71 a gallon [last] week, which is the most expensive heating oil has been in the 14 years that the state has tracked oil prices.”

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