Millions of low-income Americans may struggle to afford
heating this winter due to delays in energy assistance aid amid the US federal
government shutdown.
Following the eventual failure of Trump's plan to eliminate the life-saving heating and cooling program in this year's budget, Congress granted approximately $4 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap).
The most vulnerable families, however, might be left without vital energy assistance as power and gas bills skyrocket due to Congress' inability to negotiate a financing agreement and frozen appropriations as winter draws near.
“No family should be forced to choose between heat and food because of a federal funding delay,”
said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), which represents the state directors of Liheap.
“If the money isn’t released soon, it will cause real harm and people will suffer.”
Even before the present mess, Liheap, a nonpartisan program that has historically received insufficient funding, helped over 6 million households manage their energy bills last year, but it only reached 17% of those who qualified for aid.
Previous administrations have generally permitted the distribution of 90% of the Liheap funding by the end of October due to the program's seasonal nature.
Due to Trump's "department of government efficiency," or Doge, this year is different.
Due to severe personnel shortages, states and tribes would probably not receive the money until early December at the latest, even if the continuing resolution also known as a short-term funding fix were to be passed upon this week.
As part of the Trump administration's purported "efficiency" drive, the entire staff overseeing the decades-old bipartisan program was let go earlier this year.
As a result, there was no technical personnel available to approve states' plans for allocating the funds to households or apply the financing formula, which establishes how much each state and tribe receives. The Guardian is aware that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
With no indication that the government shutdown will end any time soon, the NEADA is urging utilities to immediately suspend disconnections for overdue bills – until the federal chaos is resolved and Liheap funds are released.
“Utilities must act in the public interest and pause shutoffs until federal aid is available again,”
said Wolfe.
111,000 households were disconnected by New York's monopoly electricity supplier alone in the first eight months of this year.
On his first day back in office, Trump proclaimed a national energy emergency and promised to reduce restrictions and increase the production of fossil fuels in order to lower consumer energy costs.
Ten states and the District of Columbia have seen increases in power costs of over 15% in the last year, with the largest increases occurring in Illinois (28%), Indiana (25%), and Ohio (23%), the home state of JD Vance. The primary causes of the price increase include the growing cost of fossil fuels, utilities charging customers for transmission and distribution infrastructure investments, and the unchecked, fast expansion of data centers, which raises demand for power.
The cost of home heating is predicted to increase by an average of 7.6% this winter, from $907 last year to a projected $976 this year, according to a NEADA study.
One in six households, or over 21 million people, are currently behind on their energy bills. By June 2025, household energy arrears had increased from $17.5 billion in December 2023 to $23 billion, a more than 30% increase.
A request for comment has been made to the health department.
How will shutdown-related permit delays affect energy infrastructure?
Shutdown- related detainments in permitting are
significantly impacting energy structure systems across the US.
numerous civil agencies responsible for environmental reviews,
design approvals, and nonsupervisory oversight have furloughed staff or
halted operations, leading to decelerate or firmed permitting
processes for new energy structure developments like oil painting,
gas, renewable energy, and transmission expansion.
Agencies similar to the Environmental Protection Agency( EPA) have desisted recycling new permits and subventions, while the Bureau of Land Management continues limited permitting but faces collaboration challenges with other agencies. This creates backups as systems frequently bear multiple agency blessings.
As a result, construction exertion is delayed or broken on energy systems, indeed those with backing in place due to the absence of constricting officers and oversight of the labor force.