In Fuel Oil Country, Cold That Cuts to the Heart

[Little Star]

NYT
By DAN BARRY
February 3, 2012

In Fuel Oil Country, Cold That Cuts to the Heart

~snip
With the darkening approach of another ice-hard Saturday night in western Maine, the man on the telephone was pleading for help, again. His tank was nearly dry, and he and his disabled wife needed precious heating oil to keep warm. Could Ike help out? Again?

Ike Libby, the co-owner of a small oil company called Hometown Energy, ached for his customer, Robert Hartford. He knew what winter in Maine meant, especially for a retired couple living in a wood-frame house built in the 19th century. But he also knew that the Hartfords already owed him more than $700 for two earlier deliveries.

The oil man said he was very sorry. The customer said he understood. And each was left to grapple with a matter so mundane in Maine, and so vital: the need for heat. For the rest of the weekend, Mr. Libby agonized over his decision, while Mr. Hartford warmed his house with the heat from his electric stove’s four burners.
snip~

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/maine-resident-struggles-to-heat-his-home.html

By the time I finished reading this article I was fighting back tears. WTH kind of country are we that we allow this to happen?

[msongs]

1. we're sorry, the war criminal profiteers industry needs more tax payer cash ASP nt

[Brickbat]

2. Assistance has been slashed. Shameful.

As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills. Eligibility is harder now, and the average amount given here is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon.

[Little Star]

5. It is shameful and heartbreaking...

I welled up with tears just reading the article. It ain't pretty being poor in this country and even worse being old, disabled and poor.

[TheWraith]

6. Not accurate.

The LIHEAP funding and requirements returned to what they were before, after a 1 year temporary bump during the height of oil prices. Not the same thing as being slashed.

[L0oniX]

3. If only Wallstreet had been cold we could have not given them a bail out.

[ellisonz]

4. K & R