Candidates getting involved in oil crisis

By BRIAN SCHEID
Bucks County Courier Times

The rising cost of home heating oil has quickly become an issue in Bucks County politics.

Last week, state Rep. Chris King, D-142, announced plans to introduce legislation that would have the state regulate the home heating oil industry, a plan his Republican opponent, Frank Farry, countered with a proposal to expand the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was the first member of the Senate to ask President Bush to call Congress back from its August recess to work on legislation to lower oil and gas prices.

Several Republicans, including Tom Manion, a Doylestown Township resident running for Congress this year, joined Specter’s call.

“We need to act with a sense of urgency,” Manion said.

This week, Manion said that home heating oil prices would be one of the biggest issues in this year’s congressional campaign.

“We have a lot of people here that use that type of heat,” Manion said. “I think it’s on a lot of people’s minds.”

Manion applauded a funding increase that Specter introduced as an amendment in the fiscal year 2009 budget resolution for the energy assistance program. That amendment, approved in March, called for a $1 billion increase in the assistance program.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to qualify for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program a household should have an annual income at 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. For example, a family of four making $31,800 or less would qualify under the guidelines.

Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, is the co-sponsor of two pending pieces of legislation aimed at curbing heating oil costs, according to Nat Binns, a Murphy spokesman. Those bills include The Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act, which would nearly double the funding in the energy assistance program, and the Home Energy Affordability Tax Relief Act of 2008, which would provide a $500 tax credit to those who spend more than $1,500 on home heating costs during the winter season. Families and individuals who spend less than $1,500 would receive a credit equal to one-third their heating costs.

Tom Lingenfelter, a Doylestown political activist who is running an independent campaign for Congress, said the only way to lower oil costs is to allow oil companies to expand domestic exploration.

“Congress has to do what they should have been doing all along,” Lingenfelter said. “They need to allow oil companies to expand and explore anywhere feasible. They can drill in my backyard if it’s feasible.”