WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Increased funding is needed if the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is to help the growing number of first-time applicants who have fallen victim to the recession.
More than 25 community advocates and Entergy employees spread the message today about the need to fund LIHEAP during Capitol Hill meetings with members of congressional delegations from each of the four states served by Entergy utilities. Participants asked that Congress either increase funding for LIHEAP or keep it at the current level of $5.1 billion. LIHEAP is the primary method of helping pay energy bills for the elderly, disabled and children of the working-poor.
Even with a record appropriation of $5.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, estimates are LIHEAP will only reach about one out of every four eligible American households.
Victoria Seals of Jackson, Miss., understands the need for LIHEAP funding better than most. A LIHEAP grant helped the mother of two pay her energy bills while she met the final requirements for a degree in social work.
"While a student at Jackson State University, I was required to complete various volunteer hours to earn my bachelor's degree in social work. There just wasn't enough time in the day for me to meet that requirement, finish school and hold down a full-time job," Seals told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference today. "I needed help from LIHEAP so I could honor my energy bills and actually graduate from college. Without that extra support, it would have been impossible for me to finish my internship and graduate when I did.
"It was the first time I've needed help like that, and it meant so much to me," she said. "It's not an entitlement program. It gave me the kind of help that's so needed these days - it got me over a serious financial bump."
Seals said the Hinds County (Miss.) Human Resource Agency's LIHEAP program is much more than payment assistance. "It's really designed to help people move toward becoming self-sufficient. The agency certainly did that with me and many others," she said.
Seals, community advocates and Entergy employees from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas were among about 200 participants in the National Fuel Funds Network's annual Action Day for LIHEAP.
"The number of people needing help is growing along with the recession. Congress needs to increase funding for LIHEAP for fiscal year 2010 - or at least keep it stable -- to meet that demand," said Linda Barnes, manager of low-income initiatives for Entergy. "We are finding more and more customers who are having trouble paying their energy bills for the first time. If LIHEAP doesn't respond, how are they going to get help? Adequate LIHEAP funding needs to be there next year. It's clear that more and more folks desperately need the help LIHEAP provides. Parents should not be forced to choose between their thermostat and buying enough food for their children.
"At the minimum, funding has to be kept at the current $5.1 billion level or we won't be able to help the most vulnerable," Barnes said.
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $13 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.
Entergy's online address is http://www.entergy.com/
