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I should probably start off with some good news - the public servants who represent us federally and statewide, no matter where they are on the party spectrum, have gotten the message that New Hampshire (and New England) is facing an unprecedented home heating crisis that is scarier than any horror movie.
So hoo-ray! for Judd Gregg to rush in first on the scene with a plan, as featured prominently by the Union Leader:
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., yesterday introduced legislation that could more than double the amount of low-income home heating assistance that was available to New Hampshire last winter and nearly double the national total already included in a key 2009 appropriations bill.
One problem, though. It's all a charade (and thank you to John DiStaso for following up with a second article):
"Any attempt to expand LIHEAP at this point is a good attempt," Rep. Paul Hodes said. "The President wanted to cut it 22 percent." But he said Gregg's bill "falls far short of what is really needed."
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter said doubling funding "is insufficient because we know the cost of heating oil is 74 percent higher than the level we were at last year."
..."We serve only 30 percent of the people eligible for the program," she said. "We're going to get more people now."
That last part is critical. Only 3 out of 10 people who were eligible for assistance got it last year. Gregg wants to double that.
Which would mean that 4 out of 10 people who qualify for it this year will still be out of luck, provided that the price of oil was the same as last year!
Here's a reality check - a friend of mine called her oil company a few weeks ago, gave them the total gallons used last year and asked what that would cost this winter at the current price. It was more than double. So the reality is that Gregg's "help" would probably keep things right at last year's unacceptable status quo, if that much.
But what else would you expect from a millionaire who won $800K from a Powerball ticket and then on the same day voted against increasing home heating oil assistance?
Gregg didn't let that good fortune keep him from putting in a full day's work yesterday. For instance, he found time to vote against a bill that would have helped poor families pay their home heating costs this winter. (Gregg was the only New England senator to vote against the proposal.)
On the other hand, Carol Shea-Porter, as usual, is looking out for us. She is the author (prime sponsor) of HR 6538 IH, the Home Energy Assistance Through Emergency Relief Act, a bill which would provide 9 billion in LIHEAP assistance and another billion for home weatherization assistance (critical for reducing heating costs, given how many older homes New England heats). Paul hodes is a co-sponsor of this bill as well.
(Or we could spend as much money on a week or two in Iraq.)
It took me weeks to reach my wood guy this year. When I finally got to him, he apologized and said that in 15 years of selling cord wood, he's never been so busy. New customers are flooding in, and old customers want double or more the amount of wood they've ordered in the past to offset the price of oil. He said that when he gets home from working all day, he simply can't handle the volume of phone messages left for him from increased demand.And I've also heard secondhand that firefighters across the state are extremely concerned about this upcoming winter. With people scrambling to find different ways of heating their house than oil all at once, the odds for a tragic fire is increase exponentially. I myself can recall two incidents (a deadly fire, and a near fatal explosion) in my local community in recent years that have devastated lives and families.
Which is all a way of saying that I don't care where increased funding for home heating oil comes, so long as it comes in a form other than sleight-of-hand.
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