The heat is on to help poor pay for energy

At an annual conference on childhood poverty, advocates and utility representatives say they hope to get legislation introduced soon to help low-income Rhode Islanders.

Sunday, February 6, 2005, BY MICHAEL CORKERY, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Advocates for the poor and representatives from the energy industry are nearing agreement on a proposal to help low-income residents pay their utility bills.

A committee of advocates and industry officials plans to submit the proposal to the legislature detailing the assistance plan and whether rate payers would be asked to subsidize it.

Committee member Elizabeth Burke Bryant said the proposal was a significant development in the perennial debate over energy assistance for the poor.

"The important thing was to have all the parties at the same table," said Bryant, the executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count.

Bryant spoke yesterday at the 14th Annual Conference of the Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty, where the issue of affordable energy took center stage.

Bryant told nearly 300 people at the Rhode Island Convention Center that after months of discussion, details of the proposal are still being finalized. But she hoped it would be sent to the General Assembly by Friday, then introduced as a bill.

Conference speakers said low-income residents are forgoing food and medicine to heat their homes this winter. Others rely on charitable donations to pay off delinquent bills, or they face shutoffs.

But not everyone agrees on the size and scope of the problem. Henry Shelton, the director of the George Wiley Center of Pawtucket, said yesterday that there were more than 21,000 gas and electric shutoffs last year in Rhode Island.

But that number included people who moved out of state, college students and utility bills tied up in probate cases, said James Lanni, of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers. Lanni said only 10 percent to 15 percent of the shutoffs affected low-income people.

"I'm not saying it is not an issue," said Lanni, the division's associate administrator of operations and consumer affairs, who attended the conference yesterday.

"There is money out there for low-income [energy assistance]. Is it enough? There may never be enough."

Rep. Thomas C. Slater, D-Providence, said he has devised a bill this year that would attach a 1-percent surcharge to all utility bills to pay for low-income assistance.

Last year, when he proposed a similar bill, Slater recalled being criticized on talk radio that he should be "tried for treason" for asking rate payers to subsidize the utility bills of a few.

He said he was eager to see what the committee submits next week. "There is no need to keep studying this," Slater told the Convention Center crowd.

Matthew Guglielmetti, director of the state Energy Office, was slated to participate in a panel discussion about heating assistance, but canceled at the last minute, event organizers said.

Governor Carcieri was invited to the conference, which also examined issues of affordable housing and job training. But he did not attend. The conference sponsors included Citizens Bank, Narragansett Electric, Metlife Home and Auto, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and several other labor unions.

Many states already have extensive energy plans for their low-income residents. Sonny Popowsky, a Pennsylvania consumer advocate, spoke about his state's program at the conference.

He said a central question that Rhode Island should consider is whether the assistance would go to people who failed to pay their bills or to low-income residents who needed the help.

The federal government provides heating assistance through its LIHEAP program, but that money is limited.

Even supporters of providing additional assistance concede that it could be a tough sell with Rhode Island rate payers.

"There are many social benefits," said John Howat, of the National Consumer Law Center in Boston. "But where is the money going to come from?"

Howat said in other states, the money comes not just from homeowners' bills, but also from businesses and industry. "I would urge that all rate payers be considered," he said.

He said the public utilities commission has reduced the bills of large industry, such as the Navy, based on economic development. He said extending the same principle to low-income residents was likewise "good policy."

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