Trump Slashes Help for Power, Heating Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration eliminated the entire staff working on the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), according to published reports. LIHEAP is a congressionally mandated program that helps millions of Americans pay their home heating or cooling bills.
The following is a comment from Dawone Robinson, a managing director for climate and energy at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“For a president who promised to lower people's energy bills, this is a shocking move. Millions of Americans could now be at risk from blistering heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter—forced to choose between paying for heating and cooling and other essential needs like food and medicine.
“Slashing this aid to try and find the cash to finance tax cuts for billionaires is unconscionable.
“This may be the most egregious example of the Trump administration siding with the fossil fuel billionaires instead of consumers—but it’s not the only one. Trump moved to cut grants to help weatherize homes, stifled new low-cost wind energy, and has promised to bail out old, dirty coal plants.”
“After some of its previous missteps, the administration moved to reinstate workers that it never should have let go. It should do so today for the federal staff working on the critical LIHEAP program.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).