October 12, 2023

Warren, Reed, Murkowski, Lawmakers, Send Bipartisan Letter Urging Biden Administration to Help Reduce Energy Costs For Working Families

Text of Letter (PDF) 

Washington, D.C. — United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), along with 25 other lawmakers, sent a letter to Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Shalanda Young and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra, urging them to take additional steps to reduce energy costs for Americans through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The lawmakers are requesting the Biden Administration include supplemental LIHEAP funding in any additional request submitted for FY2024 appropriations. LIHEAP is a federally funded program that helps low-income households with their home energy bills by providing payment and/or energy crisis assistance.

“Amid increased energy prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine and inflationary pressures, LIHEAP has become even more important for helping families pay their energy bills without foregoing other essentials,” wrote the Senators.

“Unfortunately, supplemental funding is needed once again as we head into another winter heating season. Winter heating prices are expected to remain roughly as high as last year, and LIHEAP applications are up significantly,” the Senators continued. “According to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, states are reporting increases of up to 20% in the number of LIHEAP applications since last year. With limited funding, states will face tough choices about the amount of assistance they can provide and the number of people they can serve.”

LIHEAP is administered by states and accessed through local Community Action Agencies. Eligibility for LIHEAP is based on income, family size, and the availability of resources.

Nationwide, an estimated 6 million households received assistance with heating and cooling costs through LIHEAP over the last year, including more than 130,000 Masschisetts households.

In addition to Senator Warren, the letter was signed by United States Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Angus King (I-Maine), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Mastro (D-Nevada), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Robert Casey (D-Penn.), Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Christopher Coons (D-Del.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.).

Senator Warren has been a consistent advocate for lowering utility costs for working families:

  • In March 2023, in an effort to help more Massachusetts residents reduce their home energy costs,  Senator Warren announced that Massachusetts is getting an additional $37 million and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will receive an additional $55,000 through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), thanks to the Biden Administration releasing $1 billion in LIHEAP aid to states nationwide.

  • In February 2023, Senators Warren and Markey sent a letter to Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU)’s new Acting Chair Cecile M. Fraser, urging the department to conduct a timely review and approve pending municipal aggregation plans that over 30 communities are waiting for in order to reduce the cost of energy.

  • In March 2022, Senators Warren and Markey, along with Senators Booker, Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to President Biden, urging him to employ his existing executive authorities to advance the development and widespread adoption of clean energy and energy-efficient electric technologies, such as heat pumps, in order to reduce dependence on Russia and other authoritarian petrostates, create new green jobs, save money for American consumers, protect public health, and combat the climate crisis.

  • In March 2022, Senator Warren, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Whitehouse, and ten other Senate colleagues introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax to curb profiteering by big oil companies and provide Americans consumers relief at the pump. Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) will introduce the legislation in the House of Representatives. The legislation would levy a per-barrel-tax on big oil companies' pandemic profiteering prices and return the revenue to consumers as a quarterly rebate. 

  • In January 2022, Senator Warren, member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, along with Senators Whitehouse, Merkley, Hassan, and Markey, and Representatives Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), sent letters to six cryptomining companies raising concerns over their extraordinarily high energy usage. In the letters to Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings, Stronghold Digital Mining, Bitdeer, Bitfury Group, and Bit Digital, the lawmakers pressed the companies for information relating to their cryptomining operations, skyrocketing energy consumption, possible impacts on the climate and local environments, and their role in driving up electricity costs for American consumers. Bitcoin mining’s power consumption has more than tripled from 2019 to 2021, rivaling the energy consumption of Washington state, and of entire countries like Denmark, Chile, and Argentina.

  • In December 2021, Senator Warren raised concerns over cryptomining’s extraordinarily high energy usage, its impact on climate, and rising electricity costs for consumers as operations grow in the United States. Bitcoin mining operations tripled their annual power consumption from 2019 to 2021, consuming as much energy as Washington State and rivaling the total energy usage of countries like Denmark, Chile, and Argentina. In a letter to Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc., which operated one of the country’s largest Bitcoin mining facilities in Dresden, New York, and claimed to be “an entirely carbon neutral bitcoin mining operation,” Senator Warren expressed concern about the company’s energy usage and its impacts on the environment and consumers.

  • In November 2021, Senator Warren turned up the heat on big energy companies who are gaming the system by raising natural gas prices for consumers to boost profits and line the pockets of executives and investors. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal revealed that energy companies are exporting more natural gas than ever while limiting domestic supply, ensuring that consumers feel the burn of high energy prices this winter. In her letters to the nation’s largest natural gas producers, Senator Warren blasted this corporate greed and asked for an explanation for their decisions to export record amounts of natural gas while imposing massive price increases on American families and small businesses.

  • In November 2021, Senator Warren joined Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) to introduce the Clean Energy for All Homes Act, legislation that would make it more affordable for families to install energy efficient home technology and save money on their energy bills. The bill would help middle-class and lower-income families afford solar roof and other renewable energy technology installations by lessening the cost burden of installing these systems.

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