White House announces $13.5 bln funding to help households with energy bills (updated)

Applied Energetics

02/11/2022 10:41

(Adds details from statement)
       Nov 2 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration
will make $13.5 billion available to help low-income households
lower their heating costs this winter, the White House said on
Wednesday.
    As part of the initiative, the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services is providing $4.5 billion in low-Income Home
Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding, it said in a
statement.
    The new funding will help Americans with heating costs and
unpaid utility bills and repairs of home energy appliances that
will help lower their energy costs, the White House said.
    "These steps will provide additional support for low- and
moderate-income families, and complement tax credits that
families and building owners can use under the Inflation
Reduction Act to install energy-saving equipment and to make
building upgrades," it said.
    Separately, the U.S. Department of Energy will also allocate
$9 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to
support up to 1.6 million households in upgrading their homes to
lower energy bills. 
 (Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru;
Editing by Andrew Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)
 ((Anirudh.Saligrama@thomsonreuters.com; @journoanirudh on
Twitter;))