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September 13, 2006

Update: $1.5M to help low-income citizens with energy bills

PROVIDENCE -- Low-income Rhode Islanders will be able to draw on a $1.5 million pool of money to help pay off outstanding heating bills before the cold winter months.

The funds have been released by the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

“I am pleased that these funds have been released to us now,” Governor Carcieri said in a statement today. The state Office of Energy Resources will distribute funds to families after they apply.

“This money will enable us to help pay for service restoration to low-income families whose heating service has been shut-off for lack of payment," Carcieri said.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., added that Reed and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, led the effort in the Senate to increase funding this year for the energy-assistance program to a record $3.2 billion, up $1 billion over the previous year and the highest funding level in the program’s 25-year history.

Last winter, 29,000 low-income Rhode Island families received heating assistance grants.

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 2:57 PM | Permalink

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