Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Poor get chilly federal reception
By Annette Fuentes
I got a delivery of heating oil the other day and prepared for the worst. The Energy Department predicts a nearly 26% jump in heating costs this winter compared with last. It's going to be a long, chilly winter. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., was thinking the same thing in October when he wrote a letter, co-signed by 11 colleagues, to CEOs of nine oil companies. Reed asked the companies, flush with profits about 35% higher than last year's, to donate 10% of those profits to help low-income people pay their heating bills. ExxonMobil alone reported almost $10 billion in profits during just one quarter this year.
Reed got a response from the American Petroleum Institute, the lobby representing oil and natural gas companies. The API said oil companies were already doing their share by paying taxes on their profits. If low-income Americans need more assistance, then Congress should use some of those taxes the oil companies paid to the government to increase heating assistance.
Only one CEO responded: Felix Rodriguez of Citgo, owned by a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Rodriguez has brokered deals to sell heating oil at discounted rates to poorer communities in Massachusetts and the Bronx, N.Y., where fuel was delivered last week to three non-profit housing groups. Reed is working on a deal with Citgo for his state. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the Bush administration, has trumpeted Citgo's charitable actions, most recently in ads published in U.S. newspapers proclaiming "How Venezuela Is Keeping the Home Fires Burning in Massachusetts."
Chavez might be trying to embarrass the Bush administration, but what's really embarrassing is how little help Americans will receive this winter from their own government. The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has helped the poor and elderly pay their heating bills since 1982. That first year, the program was funded with $1.9 billion and served more than 7 million households.
This year, the program's final allocation was $1.9 billion in block grants and $298 million for the emergency funds. In other words, the program's block grant is almost the same today as it was 23 years ago. And because of inflation, that 1982 funding level would equal more than $3 billion in today's dollars.
Funding hasn't kept pace with cost increases or needs. While the number of eligible households rose more than 49% from the program's inception until 2000, funding increased only 22%. A dozen states are acting to fill the gap, pouring $280 million from their own budgets into heating assistance programs.
Like I said, it's going to be a long, cold winter.
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By Annette Fuentes
I got a delivery of heating oil the other day and prepared for the worst. The Energy Department predicts a nearly 26% jump in heating costs this winter compared with last. It's going to be a long, chilly winter. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., was thinking the same thing in October when he wrote a letter, co-signed by 11 colleagues, to CEOs of nine oil companies. Reed asked the companies, flush with profits about 35% higher than last year's, to donate 10% of those profits to help low-income people pay their heating bills. ExxonMobil alone reported almost $10 billion in profits during just one quarter this year.
Reed got a response from the American Petroleum Institute, the lobby representing oil and natural gas companies. The API said oil companies were already doing their share by paying taxes on their profits. If low-income Americans need more assistance, then Congress should use some of those taxes the oil companies paid to the government to increase heating assistance.
Only one CEO responded: Felix Rodriguez of Citgo, owned by a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Rodriguez has brokered deals to sell heating oil at discounted rates to poorer communities in Massachusetts and the Bronx, N.Y., where fuel was delivered last week to three non-profit housing groups. Reed is working on a deal with Citgo for his state. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the Bush administration, has trumpeted Citgo's charitable actions, most recently in ads published in U.S. newspapers proclaiming "How Venezuela Is Keeping the Home Fires Burning in Massachusetts."
Chavez might be trying to embarrass the Bush administration, but what's really embarrassing is how little help Americans will receive this winter from their own government. The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has helped the poor and elderly pay their heating bills since 1982. That first year, the program was funded with $1.9 billion and served more than 7 million households.
This year, the program's final allocation was $1.9 billion in block grants and $298 million for the emergency funds. In other words, the program's block grant is almost the same today as it was 23 years ago. And because of inflation, that 1982 funding level would equal more than $3 billion in today's dollars.
Funding hasn't kept pace with cost increases or needs. While the number of eligible households rose more than 49% from the program's inception until 2000, funding increased only 22%. A dozen states are acting to fill the gap, pouring $280 million from their own budgets into heating assistance programs.
Like I said, it's going to be a long, cold winter.
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