Looming cuts to energy aid fuel fear of 'deadly' summer

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is seeking to end a decades-old energy assistance program used by six million people, amid the second-warmest global temperatures on record and U.S. electricity prices that are expected to rise more than ever in coming months.

Experts warn the confluence, worsened by climate change that makes summer heat more intense and longer-lasting, could mean a deadly season for poor communities.

The staff at the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, was fired in April amid mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The following month, Trump's budget proposal recommended eliminating LIHEAP altogether, calling it "unnecessary because States have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households."

Residents say they are not sure how they will keep cool.

"My air conditioning is my number one priority," said Venus Little, who lives in a low-income apartment complex in Washington, D.C., where the windows open only a crack.

Little, 58, has been using LIHEAP for years, ever since the single mother of three had her electricity cut off.

Now president of her tenants association, she worries about the effects of LIHEAP cuts at the 284-unit complex, where renters already struggle with "sky-high" utility rates.

"That program has made a lot of difference in a lot of tenants' lives," she told Context/the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I can't even find the words. It's cold-hearted."

The program's future rests with federal lawmakers as they seek to accommodate Trump's expansive effort to shrink the government.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

"This isn't just cutting LIHEAP. You're cutting the financial infrastructure of low-income families," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA).

"It's the elderly, the disabled, families with young children – these are very vulnerable families."

Utility rates have been rising faster than inflation, he said, with one in six U.S. households behind on utility bills and collectively owing some $21 billion – the highest number Wolfe and his colleagues have tracked.

Prices for cooling could hit record highs in coming months, NEADA said in an outlook co-published in May, warning that for poor households, the summer could be "deadly".

Heat does kill. In New York, an estimated 350 residents die each year due to extreme heat, according to the city's 2024 Heat-Related Mortality Report.

Lack of access to air conditioning at home is the most significant risk factor, it said.

People in 'danger'

When LIHEAP was created in the 1980s, it was intended primarily to help with heating during cold months but since then, summers have become more blistering.

Heat waves in 2023 led to more than 2,300 deaths nationwide, a 117% increase since 1999, according to a study last year of federal data.

The share of low-income families using central air conditioning rose from 8.5% in 1979 to more than half in 2020, according to federal statistics, with cooling expenditures growing almost six-fold from 1985 to 2022.

Last year LIHEAP was funded at about $4 billion, and local officials say there is no way states or cities could replace the federal money even as they play larger roles in funding energy efficiency and other efforts to bring down electricity prices.

We need their partnership – it's devastating," said Lorig Charkoudian, a state delegate in the Maryland General Assembly.

"People are in danger this summer," she said.

"If people can't keep their electricity running to get air conditioning, there will be people who will end up in the hospital, complicating their medication situation at a much higher financial cost to society than the cost of LIHEAP."

Although Washington and 17 states ban utilities from shutting off electricity during summer months, 33 states have no such protections, according to the NEADA.

In Washington, lawmakers also are seeking to ban evictions during heat waves, similar to rules under freezing temperatures.

Texas city mandates air conditioning

In Austin, Texas, residents have a new rule on their side this summer: a mandate that all residences have working air conditioning.

One of a rising number of cities to take such a step, Austin has seen record heat waves in recent years and a rise in heat-related health cases.

Tenants pressured landlords to take action on cooling, said Vanessa Fuentes, Austin mayor pro tem and a city council member.

Fuentes spearheaded the new law, which she said empowers renters "to report to the city and file a complaint that air conditioning has not been installed or properly updated" when temperatures rise above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius).

Some landlords have expressed concern over the expense of upgrading older buildings and say existing laws sufficed.

Fuentes said Austin has a publicly owned utility and is able to provide assistance not dependent on LIHEAP, but the surrounding county works with the federal program and is home to many of the area's lowest-income families.

Federal cuts "will make it harder for them to keep the lights on and stay safe in their homes," Fuentes said.

(Reporting by Carey L. Biron; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst.)