Maine shaping up to be "front lines" of oil crisis

by B. J. Carter
Coastal Journal Staff

Olympia Snowe greeting mid-coast residents anxious over heating their homes.

BATH- Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) heard emotional testimony from struggling midcoast residents who had turned to the state's heating assistance programs - the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Energy Crisis Intervention Program (ECIP) - during an intimate round-table discussion at the Coastal Economic Development corporation (CED).  They had survived a chasm of adversity between them, usually rooted in debilitating illnesses, and now this: the crunch for oil that has seen even the price of wood escalate as Mainers search for alternative home heating sources, and in one extraordinary case led a man to commandeer an oil truck last week.  

The CED hopes to see an increase in federal funding for LIHEAP and ECIP, programs that it says are overwhelmed with applicants scrambling for affordable fuel to heat their homes.  Currently, LIHEAP has seen a 19% increase in applications since 2002/2003, with an average benefit increase of $92 in the same time span.  ECIP, the emergency program, has seen a 28% increase in applications since 2002/2003, with an average payout increase of $84 to recipients.

Historic hikes in gasoline and home heating prices have placed an unwieldly burden on the CED, which is currently processing nearly 3,000 applications.  The average benefit of $530 is in fact down from last year’s $595 even though heating costs are up. 

After hearing grim testimony from her audience on the programs' shortcomings, Snowe apologized for the tenuous position her constituents found themselves in and thanked members of the CED.  “You are the front lines of defense in this crisis,” she noted before going on to reflect on the genesis of the energy assistance programs, namely the oil crises of '73 and '79.  “This situation certainly rivals those two moments, except that oil is at nearly $100 a barrel, when back then it was closer to $20.  People ask how much we can absorb, but that's really not the point.  As a country maybe we can absorb it, but these people here today certainly can't absorb such tremendous price increases.”

LIHEAP, established in 1981, is funded annually through Congressional appropriations and then distributed to each U.S. state (and protectorate).  The states must then decide how to distribute the funds.  Applicants that qualify for LIHEAP may then receive financial assistance to heat their homes.  With winter months ahead, it's easy to forget that northern states must share funds with warmer states whose residents may require assitance in cooling their homes.  Thanks to global climate change and the temperamental weather it seems to have brought with it, agencies like the CED have had to spread resources thinly in recent years; add the historic price of oil to the equation, and you have all the makings of a catastrophy for low income households.

As for whether or not Maine agencies can expect any more assistence from the federal government, Snowe could only offer hope that she and some of her colleagues could convice President Bush, who vetoed as recently as Nov. 13 appropriations that would have included additional federal funding for low income energy assistance, to release the remaining $20 million in limited contingency funds Congress provides the presidential office every year to state agencies looking for aid.  Pending his approval, Snowe expects that Maine would receive at least $1 million from the fund, to be distributed amongst Maine agencies.

A band-aide for a tourniquet.  

Snowe hopes to see a more permanent funding increase approved in the omnibus bill, a measure which combines several appropriations into one.  Essentially the final exam of the year, Congress will vote on it Dec. 14. 

Snowe was unwilling to make a prediction on the chances of getting increased funding.  She spoke candidly of the difficult road ahead.  “Unfortunately, there are those in Congress who seem more interested in destroying bridges than building them.”  She was undoubtedly referring to a nasty trend on the Hill in recent years, under her party's leadership, that has seen plenty of back door deal-making, pork spending (for the benefit of special interests), and win-at-all-cost approaches poison the spirit of bipartisan cooperation.  The upcoming vote on the omnibus bill will test the effectiveness of the new Democratic leadership in bridging the gap between the aisles.

Though no one likes to see a stalemate on the Hill when so much money is involved, least of all our representatives in the government, the fight for LIHEAP may require the threat of working into the new year before Congress decides its fate.  They'd better come up with something quickly.  Lives are at stake.