Trump proposes cuts to heating aid while US house fire deaths spike
By
Steve Filips
1 March 2018
There have been 599 lives lost so far in 2018 across the United States, including 61 child fatalities, with this season’s severe winter and frigid temperatures driving the brutal escalation in fatalities.
This a significant rise over the same period last year, which saw 490 lives lost with a toll of 52 children under 14 years old. The previous heating season saw a total of 1,239 perish in fires between September 15, 2016 and March 15, 2017. This will be far surpassed this year with 1,396 lives lost since September 15 of last year.
Amidst the onslaught of debilitating injuries and unrelenting loss of lives caused by house fires, the Trump Administration is proposing to eliminate from the 2019 federal budget the lifeline for many low-income people, the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The program was funded with $3 billion for this season, a decline from $3.3 billion in the previous winter.
The average amount of funds received by those that receive LIHEAP aid is a miserly $366. While more than 101 million Americans met the poverty guidelines to qualify, less than 17 million applied for the aid in 2016.
Despite Trump’s tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy utility companies are now demanding double-digit rate increases, illustrated by the example of National Grid, which provides services to customers in the northeastern US. Amongst an array of price hikes it is asking from the New York state Public Service Commission, long known as a rubber stamp, is a 20.5 percent raise in the natural gas delivery price.
This year’s increase in fatalities from house fires has been concentrated in the southern US where colder than usual weather has far exceeded the…