Congress says no to more fair help on energy

  When the federal government decides to hand out money, a line forms quickly to get it.

  That is the case each year when the Department of Health and Human Services distributes money from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. This year Arizona received $31.1 million, which was three times more than it received last year.

  Surprisingly, however, state officials are still not happy, pointing out that some less populous states received even more. We discuss why this happens in a previous editorial. It involves how federal officials determine need for help.

 They give weight to potential life-threatening circumstances if home power is turned off for low-income people, and they consider lack of heating in extreme cold in the winter the most serious problem. Thus, cold-weather Northern states receive disproportionate amounts of funding.

  We urged Congress to reconsider this formula, if it felt it was necessary to give assistance.

  The reason why is that extreme heat in the summer can be equally dangerous in our state, even though we have mild winters. Each year, low-income people and the elderly die of heatstroke in their homes because they cannot afford their utility bills. Aren't they as deserving of help as those in extreme cold?

  Yes they are and Arizona's Sen. Jon Kyl and others tried to get this formula changed this year to take into account extreme heat. He also wanted the federal agency to stop using 1980 census figures to determine the distribution of money, since Arizona has had a tremendous amount of population growth since then, going from 2.7 million to 6.3 million.

  Guess what? Congress said "no way," continuing to give cold-weather states special advantages.

  It's wrong and puts low-income residents of warmer states in harm's way. But it looks as if lawmakers from cold-weather states just don't care.