In Washington, I am working to fully fund the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides struggling families with money to heat their homes. Earlier this year, I helped lead the fight to release $490 million in emergency LIHEAP funds for this winter.
But much more needs to be done. That is why I am trying to get an additional $100 million in emergency LIHEAP funding for New England states.
Each of the last three years, a record number of Americans have turned to this home heating program when they had nowhere else to go. In Massachusetts, only about one-quarter of all eligible families are served by the program. That underscores the fact that the overall amount of money available to help families meet their home heating needs is insufficient to meet the demand. That’s why I’m also working to increase the annual funding for this critical program by an additional $2.5 billion per year and also expand who is eligible for help.
We all know the chilling effect that skyrocketing energy bills can have both inside homes and inside family budgets during these difficult economic times.
Currently, people are eligible to receive assistance from the LIHEAP program in Massachusetts if they earn up to 60 percent of the state’s median income. In Massachusetts, this means that a single person with an income of less than $29,126 is eligible, and a family of four would be eligible for assistance if their annual income is less than $56,011.
In my district, there are several organizations that provide home heating assistance for those seeking aid:
South Middlesex Opportunity Council covers many communities in the Metro West area www.smoc.org 508-620-1230
CAPIC, which covers Revere and Winthrop http://www.capicinc.org/ 617-889-8120
Community Teamwork Inc. in Lowell covers communities including Arlington and Waltham http://www.comteam.org/ 978-459-6161
Tri-CAP, which serves Everett, Malden, Medford and other surrounding communities www.tri-cap.org (website still under development) 781-322-6284
If you need further information, please contact my Medford District Office at 781.396.2900.
But here’s my question: what are we doing to lower the heating bills of those who need LIHEAP?
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p>It seems to me that it’d be awfully ‘stimulative’ to go ahead and put about $5k – $10k worth of energy upgrades in a detached home to bring up it’s energy efficiency — that’s about the cost to airseal the attic and blow in cellulose/foam to R38 levels, tighten up the basement, tune the boiler, and make any easy building envelope repairs (windows, door sweeps, chimney issues, etc.
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p>Seems to me that if we the people are paying to heat their home this year and quite possibly in future years, we might be able to do it more efficiently by investing in energy efficiency in those homes.
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p>That it adds to comfort, increases the longevity of the home, reduces carbon footprint and foreign energy dependence, and lowers those bills for the residents when they get back on their feet are all bonuses.
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p>So Mr. Markey: how much of this sort of thing are we doing? What is the barrier to doing more of this sort of thing?
Thanks for the question. I am a huge fan of the weatherization assistance program, since putting in better insulation, more energy efficient windows and doors, and installing more energy efficient furnaces can help people achieve big savings in their energy bills. In 2008, I led a successful effort to stop the Bush Administration from eliminating this program, which the Department of Energy has described as ‘the country’s longest running and perhaps most successful energy efficiency program.’
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p>The Recovery Act I supported last year included $5 billion in weatherization funding to invest in the types of energy efficiency measures you described. I am also leading the efforts in Congress to make sure this program is properly funded in the coming fiscal year. You can find more information on the clean energy pieces included in the Recovery Act here: http://globalwarming.house.gov…
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p>In addition, a portion of LIHEAP funds can also be used for weatherization to fund these type of projects.
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p>Those who are interested in applying for weatherization assistance should visit this website: http://app1.ocd.state.ma.us/fu… Click on the link for your city or town and scroll down to “Weatherization Services” to find the local action agency to contact.
Must be a mistake. Maybe for air conditioning they might need the help.