Energy Relief Petition / HEAT USA
HEAT USA

HEAT USA

HEAT's Energy Relief Petition to President Bush


President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

RE: A Call for Immediate Federal Relief For American Energy Consumers

Dear Mr. President:

I am a member of HEAT USA, the largest residential heating oil consumer buying group in the United States. We represent over 45,000 households and over 100,000 voters, but we speak on behalf of millions. The cost of heating our homes this year has reached crisis proportions, and gasoline and electricity prices add an additional crushing burden.

At this very moment millions of Americans are behind on their energy bills and a record number face the prospect of cutoff from their utilities and energy suppliers because of non-payment. Not because they do not wish to pay, but because they cannot pay. This represents a fundamental failure of our free-market system and it must be addressed by immediate government action. The alternative is to see within months the removal of elderly from their homes to shelters, the abandonment of properties without power or heat with resulting physical danger to our fellow citizens.

In a time when the government has seen fit to guarantee the obligations of Wall Street firms like Bear Stearns to the tune of $30 Billion dollars it would be unconscionable for government not to step in on behalf of the working poor and the middle class to facilitate the continued and safe delivery of basic power and heating services.

Your current budget calls for 50% less energy assistance aid to homeowners than was budgeted in 2006. This is a reckless and outdated policy. We call for you to implement the following policies immediately:

  • A quadrupling of your requested funding for energy assistance for the 2008-2009 heating season
  • An energy tax credit of $500 for all households earning less than $100,000 per annum
  • A provision for tax deductions for all expenses related to home winter-proofing, upgrading heating or cooling equipment, or the purchase of Energy Star rated appliances.
Additionally we call upon the Federal Reserve to provide a $5 billion energy hardship borrowing facility that would permit utilities, home heating oil companies, and other energy providers to borrow against their receivables in order to continue to provide continued required services to customers. The facility could be administered through existing state Heating Energy Assistance Programs.

This will not solve the crisis but it would represent a reasonable and achievable step toward preserving a vital component of the American social contract: that all citizens deserve to have access to affordable heat and electricity.

Respectfully, we remain

The following citizens of the United States,


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