Vermont’s Emergency Board taps reserves for $15.3 million in heating aid
Photo: Artaxerxes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Vermonters who heat with oil or kerosene and qualify for state fuel assistance will see bigger benefits this winter, after Gov. Phil Scott and legislative leaders on the Emergency Board unanimously approved $15.3 million in extra state money on Oct. 23.
The vote answers a problem that has been building since summer. Heating oil prices are running about 76% higher than a year ago and kerosene about 61% higher, according to VTDigger’s report on the meeting. At those prices, the regular federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program block grant, about $22.7 million for Vermont this year, would have covered a much smaller share of a household’s winter.
Most of the new money, $12.7 million, goes to seasonal fuel benefits for roughly 8,000 households that rely on oil or kerosene. About 38% of the program’s recipients heat with oil and 14% with kerosene, according to DCF. Those benefits will now cover about 62% of a household’s expected fuel needs, up from the 45% the program has generally covered, according to Miranda Gray, who leads the Economic Services Division at DCF. The remaining $2.6 million goes to Crisis Fuel, the emergency program for people who are close to running out, and roughly doubles its capacity from about 2,400 households to 4,800.
The money comes from a $50 million reserve the Legislature set aside for federal cuts and other emergencies. It is only the second draw on that reserve; the first, a year ago, was a state-funded stopgap for food assistance during the federal government shutdown.
Scott said the decision was meant to “give some comfort to those who we need to protect across Vermont,” Vermont Public reported.
Sen. Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the current price pressure essentially “unique” and said his goal was to keep low-income households’ winter fuel costs roughly in line with last year. Time was short, he noted, because the state generally pays out its lump-sum benefits in November. Unused money could go back to the reserve if Washington adds more LIHEAP funding, but Perchlik isn’t counting on it. “I’m not going to hold my breath,” he said.
Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, who chairs House Ways and Means, pointed to food and other costs landing on the same families. “So many of us don’t have any extra wiggle room at all in our budgets,” she said.
The people who run the program on the ground expect a hard season anyway. “Any additional funds that can help prevent a family from running out of home heating fuel, from having their pipes burst, is money well spent,” Travis Poulin, community action network director at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, told VTDigger. “It’s going to be a difficult winter.”
For context, the program served 14,872 households last winter with an average seasonal benefit of $1,210. Households that heat with propane, wood, pellets or electricity are also served by LIHEAP, but the extra state money announced last week is aimed at the oil and kerosene customers facing the steepest price jump.
Vermonters who have not yet applied can do so through the Department for Children and Families’ online benefits portal or with help from their regional community action agency, such as CVOEO in the Champlain Valley or Southeastern Vermont Community Action in the southeast. Those agencies also handle Crisis Fuel requests for households that are about to run dry.
Electric customers have a separate set of bills to worry about. Green Mountain Power’s rate increase is showing up on statements this fall, and we covered where GMP customers can find help last week. The state’s longer-term heating policy, including the debate over the Clean Heat Standard, is explained here.
