As I meet the people I represent, many tell me about the difficulty that they have making ends meet because of the shock that is caused by the rise in energy costs. With winter coming, many people are really worried, and I have been advocating for action to help people. I have been pleased that there is a broad bipartisan agreement between legislators and the Governor about the need for action. The legislature came into session this summer to approve energy assistance legislation.
In addition to the need to increase the amount of the assistance for people who are currently eligible for energy assistance (because fuel prices have increased), the rising costs of oil and other energy has created a problem for people whose incomes are over the current limits that needs to be addressed. The legislature approved two items to items in order to address these issues. The first, SB1101, does a few important things to help with this. It provides:
- $4 million to assist people state residents 65 or older with incomes up to $48,787 for a single person or $63,789 for a couple. This home heating assistance includes deliverable fuel, electricity and natural gas.
- $8.5 million to Operation Fuel for assistance to households with incomes between $15,600 for a single person and up to $42,400 for a family of four. This home heating assistance also includes deliverable fuel, electricity and natural gas.
- $5 million to expand Operation Fuel’s assistance to households greater than 200% of the federal poverty level but equal to or less than 100% of the state median household income – this home heating assistance includes deliverable fuel, electricity and natural gas
SB1101 also:
- Helps our local schools by allocating $6.5 million for our local school districts to heat school buildings
- Lowers the minimum delivery from 150 gallons to 100 gallons
- Ensures that companies have the resources to honor prepaid contracts
The other legislation that was approved (SB1102) is meant to raise the amount of money available for people who are currently eligible for energy assistance by adding up to $35 million into an energy contingency account to:
- Provide emergency home heating assistance
- Supplement federal funding to the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP)
And it does a number of important things to increase energy efficiency and save people money by allocating:
- $3 million added to the furnace or boiler replacement program
- $2 million to provide eligible state residents to repair or upgrade their existing boilers or furnaces to make them more efficient
- 0% loans through the Energy Conservation Loan Program to replace existing furnaces and boilers with more efficient ones
- $2 million to DECD for additional funding to their loan program for insulation, alternative energy devices, energy conservation materials and replacement furnaces and boilers
- $7 million to subsidize the cost of an energy audit to households that heat by means other than natural gas or electricity (currently the program is free to those households but cost $300 to all other households)
- $2 million to DSS to provide funding for weatherization programs to households in the CEAP program
And it also allocates:
- $3.5 million for heating assistance grants to non profit organizations that are human service or public health providers
I hope that this legislation goes a long way to help people this winter and increase our energy efficiency for the long run.
