The Cooling of America

(6 of 10)

States and communities are in effect trying to cope on their own. Well before really cold weather had set in, the Hartford city council declared a "finding of public emergency" and authorized city managers to overspend by $500,000 for energy emergencies. Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso called the legislature into special session to ask for $5 million in appropriations and $11 million in borrowed funds to support loan programs to small oil dealers, homeowners and municipalities. She estimates that 40,000 families in the state will need help, mostly to pay oil bills.

Wisconsin's legislators will consider a special bill next month that would promote conservation and alternate energy systems. In New York, the legislators and Governor Hugh Carey have been involved in a tug of war over heating assistance funding. "We are not ready for winter and never will be," says Charles Raymond, who in November left his 18-month post as manager of the most dilapidated structures in New York City, the 4,100 apartment houses run by city hall because owners were forced to abandon them for nonpayment of real estate taxes. Raymond's crews have partly weatherized every one of the structures. But, says Raymond, "there are just too many buildings out there," and more are abandoned by landlords every week—of- ten, the owners claim, because regulations do not allow rent hikes high enough to pay fuel bills. In International Falls, Minn., the coldest town in the Lower 48 and the spot where Sears tests its Diehard batteries, a community energy-education program is well established. "We started out in 1975," says County Agent Don Petman, "when it wasn't even popular to keep warm."

The oil companies have little comfort to offer beyond the assurance that supplies of heating oil are adequate. Says Gulfs Charles H. Bowman, vice president for energy regulation and compliance: "We are earning money in a shortage situation—hardship, if you will—that will be used to help alleviate the shortage. We don't feel that our profit increase on home heating oil, about three-quarters of a cent per gal. over three years, is exorbitant. If anything, it is not enough." True, Europeans are struggling with heating-fuel bills of as much as $1.50 per gal. in Denmark and Austria, but that is little consolation to Americans.