More people apply for energy assistance to help with heating

[babylonsister]

More people apply for energy assistance to help with heating

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY

A record number of U.S. households are applying for help to pay home heating bills with 17 states fielding application requests that are up more than 20% from last year, the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association says.

Almost 9 million U.S. households are expected to need help paying winter energy bills. That's up 15% from the record-setting 7.7 million last year, the association says.

Next year may be even worse, when more than 10 million households are likely to need help, given continued weakness in the economy and the swelling ranks of the longer-term unemployed, says Mark Wolfe, the association's executive director.

More immediately, Wolfe fears that more households than ever will have power shut off for non-payment. In cold-weather states, such as Illinois and Indiana, winter moratoriums on shut-offs may expire this month or in April.

"There could be a high number of people seeing shut-offs," Wolfe says.

In fiscal 2009 that ended Sept. 30, 4.3 million households had utilities shut off at one time or another for non-payment, up from 4.1 million in the previous year.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-03-01-energyhelp01_ST_N.htm

[Craftsman]

1. I live in Houston, in a nice insulated home, and I have had to burn over 2 cords of wood

this winter already. The gas bill is starting to look like a phone number.

[babylonsister]

2. It's been a miserable winter here in Savannah, too, though

I take comfort in the fact I'm not further east. I've heard it's been a bear in Houston, too (and I just moved from there). Spring is on the way??!