Candidate Notes on 01-SGA12

01-SGA12 on Sep 9, 2001

• Whereas, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), created to assist low-income households in meeting their cooling and heating needs, provides less than 20 percent of the Nation’s eligible applicants with assistance and is distributed based on a formula that is weighted toward cold weather, with only 2.8 percent in FY95 being used for cooling needs;
• Whereas, the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), a program designed to provide low-income households with energy efficient improvements, is underfunded and provides 10 times more funding to states with more heating assistance needs than states that have more cooling needs;

Whereas, sixteen southern states account for 43 percent of the low-income households in the United States and the majority of the southern states receive significantly less than the national average in the LIHEAP state gross allotments and WAP funding;

Resolved, that the Southern Governors’ Association urges Congress and the President to provide in any national energy policy increased funding for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to include a larger proportion of eligible low-income households while equitably addressing both cooling and heating needs.

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