Star Tribune (Minnesota), July 2, 2008: Advocates for poor want state to hurry on energy aid
By TERRY COLLINS, Star Tribune
July 2, 2008
Minnesota is expected to receive about $875,000 in energy assistance funds, the state Commerce Department said Wednesday.
While the money comes from a $26.7 million federal grant, those who work locally with scores of poor families are worried that the state won’t dispense it quickly enough to help keep the lights on.
More than 400 families have been turned away at the St. Paul-based Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties since mid-April because the nonprofit didn’t have the funds to help pay heating and electric bills.
“I wish it were more. This is a big deal, and they need this money now,” Catherine Fair, Community Action’s energy assistance director, said Wednesday. “Winter isn’t the only time people in Minnesota need help with their basic needs.”
Still, the new funds could provide relief for households already facing a horrid economy and high oil prices.
But the state hasn’t decided what to do with the money yet, said Bill Walsh, a Commerce Department spokesman. It could use the money to help those who didn’t receive funds last winter or put it in reserve for a low-income heating assistance program for this winter.
Minnesota spent about $111 million last winter assisting more than 126,000 households that earned less than 50 percent of the state’s median income, Walsh said.
“We’re looking at our options,” he said. “It’s heating-assistance money, and it’s currently 80 degrees outside.
“We’ll have a strategy in about a week or two.”
That’s the problem, said Pam Marshall, director of St. Paul-based Energy Cents, an advocacy and assistance agency. She said two of the state’s major utilities, Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy, have taken tougher stances and shut off service to more than 8,000 customers in May.
That’s about a month after Minnesota’s Cold Weather Rule expires. The rule, in effect from Oct. 15 to April 15, requires utilities to offer customers billing plans based on ability to pay. For a very low-income family, the rule caps heating bills at 10 percent of income.
Marshall said the new funding could assist 1,700 to 1,800 families and allow some to join billing plans.
“They can’t wait. It’s so obvious; it wouldn’t even take us long to help,” Marshall said. “Why would they sit on that money when it could be used right away?”
She also issued a challenge to Ed Garvey, deputy commerce commissioner of energy and telecommunications:
“I want him to come over here and answer the telephones from families with kids who need help,” Marshall said. “Let him try telling them no.”
Terry Collins • 612-673-1790