Holes in federal aid leave millions sweltering

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Sep 06, 2023 View in browser   By Arianna Skibell Bobbie Boyd sits with her 3-year-old grandson, DeAngelo Boyd, in an apartment with a single air conditioning unit in Fayetteville, Ark., last month. | Charlie Riedel/AP Photo If nothing else, this summer’s record-smashing heat has demonstrated that air conditioning can be a life-saving necessity. Yet more than 30 million low-income households that are eligible for federal funding to help pay their cooling costs haven’t received a dime, writes Thomas Frank in an investigation published today. That’s largely because the federal program to protect poor families from dangerous temperatures was designed with frigid winters in mind. And almost every state spends the bulk of that program’s money on heating, even as summer death tolls rise. As the planet continues to warm from burning fossil fuels — and heat kills more people in the U.S. than any other weather-related disaster — government officials are facing pressure to provide more financial assistance for air conditioning. “The programs haven’t caught up with the change in climate,” Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, told Tom. Congress created the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in the late 1970s to help families pay for soaring heating costs. Lawmakers incorporated cooling costs into the program in the 1980s. But the formula the government uses to divvy up the program’s roughly $4 billion a year to states favors those with high heating costs. As a result, 16 states, including some with significant heat risk, received zero funding to pay cooling costs from 2001 through 2021, Tom found. And hot, populous states often get less money than cooler ones with fewer people. A number of Southern GOP lawmakers whose districts baked this summer declined to seek changes to LIHEAP because they do not want to be associated with a welfare program, according to an official close to the program who asked not to be named to avoid antagonizing lawmakers. (As Tom notes, former President Donald Trump proposed eliminating LIHEAP each year he was in office.) While heat is killing more people every year, winters remain deadly. States typically receive their LIHEAP allocation in the fall and spend more than 70 percent between October and March. Saving more of that money for summer AC costs could disadvantage people who need help paying for heat. “It’s a resource issue,” said Katrina Metzler, executive director of the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition. “As the climate changes, the need is growing faster than the funds are growing.”   It's Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net. And folks, let’s keep it classy.   GROWING IN THE GOLDEN STATE: POLITICO California is growing, reinforcing our role as the indispensable insider source for reporting on politics, policy and power. From the corridors of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles to the players and innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, we're your go-to for navigating the political landscape across the state. Exclusive scoops, essential daily newsletters, unmatched policy reporting and insights — POLITICO California is your key to unlocking Golden State politics. LEARN MORE.     Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zack Colman breaks down why a carbon capture group is using a nontraditional, community-first approach to potentially build a direct air capture hub in California’s Central Valley — a fossil fuel hot spot with some of the nation’s worst air quality. Power Centers In this undated photo, an airplane flies over caribou on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Photo Biden bans drilling on millions of acres in Alaska The Biden administration announced today it will bar drilling in more than 10 million acres in northern Alaska while canceling all Trump-era oil leases in the state's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Ben Lefebvre writes. The move is the administration's most aggressive yet to protect Alaskan wilderness from oil and gas drilling. It would not reverse the White House's decision earlier this year to approve the massive Willow oil project in Alaska, which angered many green activists — and it is already riling Republicans at a time when crude oil prices are spiking again. Climate provisions rankle defense spending As Congress rushes to finish its annual defense policy bill by December, disagreement over climate and energy provisions are threatening to complicate the effort, writes Andres Picon. The divisive policy proposals include federal sustainability initiatives, electric vehicles and broader efforts to address climate change — issues that have become lightning rods for partisan debate on Capitol Hill. Evaluating natural gas as a climate pollutant A federal appeals court is considering whether it should put more pressure on the nation's top energy regulator to define when natural gas projects pose significant climate risk, writes Niina H. Farah. During oral arguments Tuesday, judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a progress report on a proposed policy for determining when new natural gas projects require a more rigorous review to assess climate impacts. In Other News This is climate change: Deadly floods hit Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria as extreme weather continues to plague Europe. Food crisis: The U.S. special envoy on food security issued a warning that the climate crisis could contribute to a global food shortage by 2050.   Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.     Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. A worker installing panels on top of a store in Miami. | AP Photo An appeals court has upheld a 2020 federal rule that cut compensation for certain small clean energy projects, a decision that green advocates say could make it harder to expand solar and wind energy. An annual review of the world’s climate shows that ocean heat and concentrations of greenhouse gases soared to record highs last year. An Irish court has given the green light to environmentalists suing the government for a second time over its climate change record. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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