Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act

Floor Speech

WARM IN WINTER AND COOL IN SUMMER ACT -- (Senate - July 26, 2008)

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Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, by now, all Americans are well aware of the record-high gas prices that have reverberated through our economy, hitting pocketbooks and inflating the price of everything from food to manufactured goods. An issue that receives far less attention, however, is the ever-increasing price of utilities for home heating and cooling. During the next 2 years alone, the Energy Information Administration, EIA, estimates that utility costs will increase substantially. In 2008 and 2009, average residential electricity prices are projected to increase by 5.2 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, while natural gas will increase by 16 percent and 34 percent. Home heating oil is projected to soar by an astounding 63 percent in 2009 alone.

During these difficult economic times, no one has been more adversely affected by high energy prices than low-income households and the unemployed, who have been hit with the double whammy of paying for skyrocketing gas prices and increased home heating and cooling bills at the same time. Since President Bush took office, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has nearly tripled, and residential energy prices have shot upward by astounding amounts, financially crippling lower income households, forcing many of them to choose whether to pay for essential food and medicine, or to keep the heat on during the dead of winter. In my home State of Michigan, my constituents are worried about how they will pay for natural gas, home heating oil and propane for the upcoming winter.

That is why increased funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP, is critical. LIHEAP was created in 1981 to help low-income families, elderly individuals on a fixed income and the unemployed pay their energy bills. Even before recent and projected increases in energy prices, my home State of Michigan--like other States--started off with less funding in this fiscal year than was required to meet the need. There have been significant efforts over the last couple of years to provide full funding for the LIHEAP program--consistent with that authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005--but these efforts have been thwarted by an administration unwilling to support this program at the necessary level.

The bill before the Senate--the Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act, S. 3186--would significantly strengthen LIHEAP. These additional emergency funds would go a long way toward providing households with the necessary assistance in dealing with soaring energy costs. I am an original cosponsor of this critical legislation, and I am pleased to support it. I look forward to its swift enactment into law.

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