Katrina vanden Heuvel: A Frozen Katrina

from The Nation:



A Frozen Katrina
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 08/13/2008 @ 11:14am




As John McCain and the Republicans trumpet their election year boldfaced lie--drill now so we can lower prices at the pump today--they continue to ignore a looming energy disaster with lives hanging in the balance.

Currently, eight million homes rely on heating oil during the winter months, and last winter's prices forced too many citizens to choose between heat, food, and medicine .

According to the New York Times, heating oil prices are now 36 percent higher than they were last winter and bills will be up to $1500 higher than they were last year. As for the 54 million households heating with natural gas, prices are expected to be 67 percent higher this winter. Current funding for the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is below 1980's levels--"a time when fuel prices were just a tiny fraction of what they are now," The Timberjay newspapers point out. In fact, last year's $2.5 billion in LIHEAP funding allowed just 16 percent of eligible recipients to receive aid. Congressional representatives of New England states have sought as much as $6.5 billion in additional LIHEAP funding to meet the anticipated needs of the upcoming winter. With both lower-income and middle-class people now unable to afford this basic necessity--a requirement for security in one's own home--newspapers in the Northeast are sounding a clarion call to head-off the impending disaster.

As the Boston Globe wrote in an editorial this month:



"It could be New England's own Katrina disaster," read a Stowe Reporter editorial. "Hundreds of homes rendered uninhabitable, families' finances stretched to the limit, some driven away altogether to take shelter with friends or family. But unlike Katrina, this calamity is clearly visible on the horizon and we have months to prepare." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/344672/a_frozen_katrina

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