More Americans to Face Energy Poverty

[T]he price of natural gas is 11 percent above where it was last winter. Heating oil is 36 percent higher, with the government projecting that the costs of both fuels will stay high. Electricity prices are also up moderately. Higher heating costs will hit particularly hard in the Northeast, where many people use heating oil.

Given how unpredictable energy markets have become, most fuel dealers are not offering their customers price protection plans, or locked rates, as they typically do at this time of the year, said Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, the biggest trade group for fuel retailers.

At last year's financing level of $2.5 billion, only 16 percent of households eligible for energy aid received money from the program, called the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and known as Liheap."