Poor black and Latino families will be the most affected by the soaring price of heating a home this year. Many will have to make the untenable choice between food and warmth.
Are the oil companies helping them? Not any of the ones based in the United States.
Will government give them a hand? Well, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is available, but only 16 percent of eligible families take advantage of this. And some states, especially in the Northeast, do have programs to help low-income families, but again, only a few take advantage of them.
Why? For undocumented immigrants, the fear of registering with a government agency is strong. For others, there is a historic distrust of the government. And in many cases, families just don't know about where to go for help.
Poor families, which are disproportionately black and Latino, face skyrocketing heating-oil prices this winter as crude-oil prices approach $100 a barrel. The price for heating oil has risen 2.5 times faster than the price for gasoline, and winter heating bills are expected to average $1,785 per home, compared with $891 for households that use natural gas, according to the Department of Energy, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"Between 2000 and 2005, the average cost in New England for a winter's supply of heating oil was about $900 a household. Last year, it hit a record $1,433, and this year it could reach $2,200," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, to The Wall Street Journal.
"Imagine if you're heating with heating oil and you also have to buy gasoline to drive to work. You have no money left to buy anything else," Wolfe said.
Last winter, 1.5 million low-income families in the Northeast region received assistance to help pay their heating bills. Blacks and Latinos were most affected because they make up a disproportionate share of America's poor. Of families in poverty in 2006--that is a family of four that earned less than $21,000 annually--blacks comprised 24.8 percent and Latinos comprised 25.4 percent, according to the Census Bureau.
Blacks and Latinos comprised 12.8 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively, of the nation's total population in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.
So which oil companies are coming to the rescue? Not American-owned or British-owned companies. The main company helping is Citgo, a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., Venezuela's state-run oil company. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently visited the South Bronx to tout his discounted-oil offer.
Citgo partners with Citizens Energy Corporation (CEC), a nonprofit that provides low-cost heating oil to low-income families in 15 states and Washington, D.C. CEC works with oil-heat dealers and local fuel-assistance agencies. This year, it will provide eligible families a one-time delivery of 100 gallons of home-heating oil. CEC has reached out to U.S.-owned oil companies, but only Citgo responded, says Ashley Durmer, CEC spokesperson.
According to CEC's 2007 report "Fuel for Our Future," utilization of 6 percent of a home's income for energy is considered affordable. "Low-income families pay far more," finds the report. "Low-income families must spend a greater percentage of their income on home-energy costs, leaving less money available for food and other necessities."
"Fuel for Our Future" notes the following problems that black and Latino children face when their parents must choose between heat and food:
Young Black Children
- Black babies and toddlers whose families experienced moderate energy insecurity were 38 percent more likely to be admitted to the hospital on the day that their parents sought care for them in an emergency room.
- Black babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were 183 percent more likely to be in a food-insecure household.
- Black babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were almost 200 percent more likely to have child-food insecurity.
- Black babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were 43 percent more likely to be in fair or poor health.
- Black babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were 82 percent more likely to be developmentally at risk.
Young Latino Children
- Latino babies and toddlers whose families experienced moderate energy insecurity were 45 percent more likely to have had a past hospitalization.
- Latino babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were more than 200 percent more likely to be in a food-insecure household.
- Latino babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were nearly 200 percent more likely to experience child-food insecurity.
Latino babies and toddlers whose families experienced severe energy insecurity were 93 percent more likely to be developmentally at risk.
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