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home > radio > maine news > news story Maine NewsA Call For Congress And The Legislature To Greatly Increase Heating Oil Assistance With Maine and New England facing a major heating oil crisis this winter and Governor Baldacci contemplating the possibility of a special Legislative session to address it, community action agencies have come up with an action plan of their own. All ten agencies are asking Congress to appropriate five times as much heating oil assistance as they have in the past and they want Maine lawmakers to ante up another 20 million for emergency "no-heat" situations. For Maine's ten community action agencies, who distribute low income heating and energy assistance, the math just does not add up. Six years ago the average family in Maine spent about $850 on 800 gallons of oil to heat their home. This year that same family is looking at spending about $4,000 for the same amount of heating oil. But the average energy assistance benefit has dropped by more than $300. As a result, Matthew Smith, president of the Maine Community Action Association, says more people than ever are going to be in trouble. “A hundred thousand households, which is about a little less than a quarter of the households will face really a difficult time this winter." Those households will be seeking energy assistance. And Smith says they won't just be low income households, they'll be working families where both parents work. He and other community action program leaders say lowering eligibility for assistance is essential and they want the state and federal government to do something fast. They're asking Congress for a five-fold increase in the program known as LIHEAP. "We're asking for about $20 billion more than is currently authorized. If you look simply at the price of oil between the winter of 2002-2003 and the coming winter of 08-09 you can see that the cost of oil has risen by five times, so we're saying that the oil has gone up five times, the appropriation needs to go up five times." And not just the federal appropriation. Smith says Maine lawmakers need to appropriate emergency funding too: $20 million to handle the expected onslaught of "no-heat" calls; that is people whose furnaces are within 24 hours of running out of oil. And Smith says the state also needs to provide financial support for community organizations who will be on the front lines of the crisis. Fear and frustration are already beginning to show. "What's wrong with asking the government to hit their reserves? When do they think it is important?" Ellie Cusson is a resident of a senior housing complex in Lewiston where Smith held a news conference on the heating oil crisis. "Now our people are freezing. Our people are going hungry. Our people are going without transportation. Now why do we have to put up with this when there's plenty in the fuel reserves that the government could help us with?" Unable to work because of a disability, Cusson says she was recently forced to give up her home in Farmington because she could not afford the cost of heat or transportation to see her specialist in Lewiston. She says the house was paid off and had been specially designed to accommodate her wheelchair. Now it remains up for sale. She still has to pay taxes and insurance for it. And she's worried about keeping the house warm this winter. "I'll have to find a way this winter to keep the pipes from freezing or drain them or something. So now, I'm paying more or less in a way for two places even though my house is all paid for." Henriette Bergeron is in a similar situation. She also owns a home in Lewiston and moved into the senior complex in May because she could no longer afford maintenance or heat. She got help from Community Concepts last winter, paid for a new furnace, closed off her upstairs and kept the thermostat as low as she could stand. “I used to put it at 62 upstairs and downstairs I used to put it at 69. But at 69 I was cold.” You were cold? “Yeah. Oh yeah, I was cold.” Advocates for low income and elderly people say they're worried that without a boost in state and federal heating assistance, more Mainers like Henriette Bergeron will be cold this winter, and in some cases, be at risk for life threatening hypothermia--something they say can and should be prevented before winter sets in.
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