The White House announced on Thursday that it’s offering several billion dollars in aid for winter heating and utility bills, and calling on power companies to avoid shutting off service to needy Americans over the coming months.
The move is intended to avoid “devastating” utility terminations and takes the aid funds from the American Rescue Plan, which was passed early this year.
The plan makes available several programs that state and local utility companies can use to help needy customers.
“States and localities have the flexibility to use Fiscal Recovery Funds to help deliver energy relief to families, including for middle-class households that may not be eligible for programs directed to the lowest income consumers,” the White House said in a statement.
“The White House also calls on utility companies that receive public dollars to prevent devastating utility shut-offs this winter and help expedite the delivery of unprecedented federal aid.”
Officials said, for example, the pandemic-era Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has up to $4 billion available to help several million U.S. households and the Emergency Rental Assistance program has $21.5 billion to help renters.
The White House said utilities must be proactive in using the programs so those who need help this winter can receive it. The Treasury Department will assist in identifying people eligible for available programs.
“Utilities and energy providers should inform customers of energy assistance programs, screen customers for benefits eligibility, and facilitate referrals to available benefits programs prior to any shut-offs,” the White House added.
“Energy providers should be critical partners by proactively working to establish the processes and data-sharing relationships needed to speed benefits to their eligible customers as quickly as possible.”
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That’s interesting—supposedly the infrastructure bill requires the printing of money the government doesn’t have. If our energy independence was still intact, there would be no need for this,
Let’s Go Brandon
Just plenty of money, no not enough energy produced to burn thanks to Joe mishandling the pipelines. Maybe the Democrats plan for them to burn cash in their fireplaces to heat their homes, which is the equivalent of what their policies have to offer THE PEOPLE. Same result, as your economy and jobs go up in smoke and the air not one iota any cleaner burning Russian and Iranian oil versus that produced in the good old USA. Electing them over and over and expecting to get a different result IS the definition of social insanity.
AND who’s paying FOR THOSE BILLIONS?!
Let Private industry and and this should remove all those extra billions you have Bin Biden. Then you can reduce our tax burden and start giving back to we the people.
Raise the price of energy is the plan. This will make “green” energy look more important and affordable. All the “green” spending will enrich the politically well connected and big business, subsidize the virtue signaling middle class in their electric cars, and pocket change for the huddled freezing poor to keep them above room temperature to keep voting Democrat.
BUT as we saw from Texas a BIG ENOUGH FREEZE WILL shank over all ‘green energy’ productions!
Aid wouldn’t be needed if energy policies mirrored the reality of energy production and not the fanciful dreams of those without any expertise in the field. Sacrifices will be made by those least able to afford it while the elite, those who pontificate on such matters, will continue to squander it with nary a blink of an eyelash!
So true. HAD biden NO shanked over our energy independence, that trump gave us, we WOULDN’T BE LOOKING AT higher gas prices for heating our homes!
City Council already declared a $28 a month average homeowner increase due to natural gas prices. I’m sure that won’t be the last one although many states are sitting on gas that could be drilled for as energy workers go without jobs.
FJB