Q: Many low-come individuals are on fuel assistance. The elderly and
people with disabilities who needed such assistance struggled to keep warm this
past winter waiting to get on the program. According to a magazine article, the
fuel assistance program costs a billion dollars due to the high cost of fossil
and natural gas. If 20 percent of today's energy came from renewable energy,
would it have helped tremendously those on low-come tremendously to afford
heating bills?
Sincerely, Paul R - Massachusetts
A: Paul, Thank you for your thoughtful question. While approximately 5
percent of annual income is spent on all energy bills for the average American
household, the households that are poor spend more than 20 percent on energy
annually, depending upon the fuel source and location.
Each year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its
LIHEAP program helps more than 4.5 million low-income families across America
pay the costs of heating their homes in the winter and cooling their homes in
the summer. LIHEAP programs offer the following types of assistance: bill
payment assistance, energy crisis assistance and weatherization and
energy-related home repairs. The FY 2005 omnibus appropriations bill allocated
over USD $1.6 billion to the states.
Another US agency, the US Department of Energy (DOE) also has State Grant
Programs which include the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and State
Energy Programs. In January 2003, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study
concluded that the under $50 million State Energy Program saved $256,422,600.
DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program is one of this country's longest running
energy programs. The 2005 Budget included $291 million for this program, During
the last 27 years, the U.S. Department of Energy 's (DOE) Weatherization
Assistance Program has provided weatherization services to more than 5.3 million
low-income families and in 2005, the goal is to weatherize 92,500 homes
addressing air conditioning and warm climate weatherization measures, electrical
appliances and weatherization base load measures including insulation,
weatherstripping, window repairs and fuel oil heater adjustments.
Except for the State Energy Programs run by the State Energy Offices, very
little has been done to substitute renewable energy for volatile-price fuels
such as fuel heating oil and natural gas, as well as electricity in the
traditional HHS LIHEAP and DOE Weatherization programs. Solar water heating has
been used in Florida and Hawaii at times. However, the State Energy Offices and
the locally-based Community Action Agencies have been the vanguards of
implementing high value efficiency and renewable energy. But it's up to the US
Congress to change direction of having taxpayers underwrite almost $2 billion of
low-income utility bills per year to substituting one-time investments in solar,
small wind, ground-coupled heat pumps, cogeneration and district heating,
microhydropower and other applications to provide electricity, heating and
cooling -- providing energy on a stable, dependable basis.
- Scott Sklar
Scott Sklar is President of The Stella Group in Washington, D.C., a distributed energy marketing and policy firm. Scott, co-author of "A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy", uses solar technologies for heating and power at his home in Virginia.
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