Investment experts in the petroleum market believe that just a small release of oil from the reserve could immediately stabilize prices and convince OPEC ministers to increase production by a modest amount. We also urge you to demand that OPEC and other major foreign suppliers increase their production of both crude oil and home heating oil exported to the United States in order to address this problem. While OPEC has recently agreed to raise the production of oil by three percent, most analysts believe that it is not likely to make much of a difference. Clearly, OPEC is not living up to this commitment. In the United States of America, low-income senior citizens and children should not be forced to go cold in the winter.
Timing is critical.
Upon release of emergency funding last year, it took two to four weeks, depending on the state, for low-income households to actually receive the funds. Some states have expressed interest in using an early funding release for fuel pre-contracting before prices rise higher this winter. We applaud such foresight and would like to assist these efforts. We recognize that other states may not be prepared to take such measures and ask that you permit states to carry forward these contingency funds into the next fiscal year. We thank you in advance for your attention to these matters.