Gov. Taft works to get aid for home heating

Taft wants to use federal money to help pay some home heating bills.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- With natural-gas home heating bills projected to spike severely this winter, Gov. Bob Taft is trying to put together a plan to offer relief to low-income and elderly Ohioans.
Taft met this week with directors of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and Development and the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to brainstorm on the issue, including trying to use some of a reported $1.1 billion in surplus federal welfare funds, known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Mark Rickel, the governor's spokesman, said Wednesday the governor wants to see "how we can assist Ohioans that are going to be facing potentially higher bills to heat their homes, in particular lower-income families and the elderly."
The Energy Information Administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, forecasts a 71 percent increase this winter in the Midwest in natural-gas, home heating bills over last winter.
Disruption of gas supplies from the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast, which produces 19 percent of U.S. gas supplies, could also add to the price pressures, state and federal officials say.
Rickel said Taft administration officials left this week's meeting with the instructions to come up with a temporary financial assistance plan and to work to educate Ohioans about conservation measures such as using energy-efficient heating equipment and properly weatherizing homes.
Bypassing Legislature
Taft, a Republican, could announce a potential assistance plan in about a week or so that could be instituted through executive order, Rickel said. That means the plan would not have to receive approval from the GOP-dominated Legislature, he said.
On Wednesday, the House Public Utilities & amp; Energy Committee, in the first of possibly several hearings on the potential spikes in heating costs this winter, heard from representatives of gas companies and others.
Jack Partridge, president of Columbia Gas of Ohio, which has more than 1.4 million customers over 64 of the state's 88 counties, said one long-term solution to high natural gas prices is to open up new areas for gas exploration.
"High natural gas prices will only come down, and stay down, when significant new gas supplies are brought to market," Partridge told the committee.
Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, an industry group, said in an interview that oil and gas companies primarily work with private property owners to drill for oil and gas in Ohio.
But Stewart, who's expected to testify before the House committee next week, said he expects the industry to push lawmakers to consider legislation that would explore leasing state-owned property for oil and gas extraction.
Environmental group
Jack Shaner, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council, an association of more than 100 environmental advocacy groups statewide, said his group would oppose bringing natural gas and oil exploration into state-owned "nature preserves and any sensitive biologically significant areas."
"Otherwise, we need to have very high standards and significant state compensation for considering any other state-owned lands," Shaner said.
As part of an energy bill passed earlier this year, the U.S. Congress approved a permanent prohibition on oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes including Lake Erie at Ohio's northern edge.
In 2003, Taft issued an executive order prohibiting gas and oil exploration on the Ohio side of Lake Erie through his term in office. The House hearings continue next week.