NE lawmakers request action on region's rising fuel oil cost

By Alex Canizares States News Service , 9/9/2000

ASHINGTON - Several New England lawmakers, saying home-heating costs this winter may reach their highest level in history, urged the Clinton administration yesterday to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and to provide $400 million in emergency heating funds for low-income households.

''Unless averted, this winter's expected crisis could have a disastrous impact on the American people - especially the elderly, working families, family farmers, small businesses, the disabled, and the poor,'' said Representative J. Joseph Moakley, Democrat of South Boston, and three other House members in a letter.

Lawmakers from both parties coalesced around home-heating costs after price spikes caught many residents off guard last year. Home-heating costs are already 52.5 percent higher than a year ago, the letter said, and could climb 40 percent due to low supplies.

The Massachusetts delegation sent a letter yesterday to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, expressing alarm about the ''potential crisis'' for residents in the region, where the majority of heating oil is used.

The Clinton administration is trying to establish a 2 million-barrel home heating oil reserve in the Northeast by the end of October, but lawmakers said in the letters that other emergency measures are needed.

Moakley, with Representatives Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, and Jack Quinn and Sherwood Boehlert, both New York Republicans, circulated a third letter proposing $1.5 billion in energy spending.

That letter, sent to key House Republican committee chairmen yesterday, proposes a variety of spending increases in bills before Congress.

The proposal includes $4 million for the regional reserve, a $550 million increase in heating assistance for low-income families, and additional funds to reduce demand on oil and gas and to spur energy efficiency.

Legislation needed to establish when to release oil from the reserve, which has been criticized as a political tool by the oil industry, could be voted on in the Senate this month, an aide said.

The letter to Clinton asks for immediately swapping crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stockpiles held for national supply emergencies, and releasing $400 million in emergency heating funds for low-income families.

The letter also urged Clinton to pressure OPEC and other oil-producing countries, which agreed to keep oil prices below $28 per barrel, but are ''not living up to this commitment.''

This story ran on page A16 of the Boston Globe on 9/9/2000.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/nation/NE_lawmakers_request_action_on_region_s_rising_fuel_oil_cost+.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 09, 2000