Maine Owl

Federal budget bill also includes $25.5 million in LIHEAP heating assistance


Veazie Dam, January 4, 2007 (Maine Owl photo)

Following up on previous posts, President Bush has signed a $555 billion budget bill that includes probably $10 million for the Penobscot River restoration project and $25.5 million in LIHEAP funds for Maine winter heating fuel assistance. The Bangor Daily News today finally has something on the Penobscot River story within this front-page article:

$555B budget aids Maine:
Funds for Penobscot River fish habitat, LIHEAP in package
By Kevin Miller - Friday, December 28, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

The omnibus $555 billion budget bill signed by President Bush this week contains much-needed assistance for Mainers struggling to heat their homes and millions of dollars for local conservation projects, including fish passage in the Penobscot River.

Maine?s congressional delegation had made home heating assistance a top priority during budget negotiations. The federal spending package approved by both Congress and the Bush administration contains $2.6 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Maine will receive a minimum of $25.5 million in LIHEAP funds in the current federal fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. It also will be eligible for a portion of the $586 million in emergency LIHEAP funding which the administration can dispense at its discretion.

Members of the Maine delegation are asking the president to release the emergency funding immediately to help low-income families offset the rising costs of heating oil. More than 48,000 Maine households typically receive money from the federal program.

Proponents of several high-profile land conservation projects also were pleased with provisions of the federal budget.

For months now, those involved with a historic plan to remove two dams and bypass a third on the Penobscot River have been working with Maine?s delegation to secure $10 million for the project....

The omnibus budget bill also contains $3.25 million in Forest Legacy funds to buy a working forest easement from GMO Renewable Resources on 24,500 acres near Great Pond in Hancock County.

Maine already had received $2.2 million in Forest Legacy funds for another part of what is known as the Lower Penobscot Forest project. Combined, the two phases will prohibit development on more than 42,500 acres stretching from the Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Milford to the west branch of the Union River....

Wow. That last statement of policy embodied in the act funding the Lower Penobscot Forest project is a staggeringly huge plus for our area. Why isn't our local media all over this one? Why was the Boston Globe ahead of them? I'm happy Congress (with the strong support of Republican Senators Snowe and Collins) managed to pull this off and get the Administration to go along.

Of course one always needs to be suspicious of Bush, as he has tended to use Maine as his environmental facade. And Collins could use some environmental cred in her re-election fight with Rep. Tom Allen who is the Democrat challenging her for her Senate seat. Of course, Allen is 100% behind this project as well. Well, it's all happy consequences for us, the inhabitants of this area.

On the LIHEAP front, it amazes me how both Snowe and Collins (correctly) abandon "free market" principles with respect to the home heating catastrophe brewing here in Maine this winter. The money will go a long way to helping those worst off. My question is, why don't we put some real liberals in those Senate seats? The state obviously requires public resources to assuage the horrors of the 21st century American economy.