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Publication Date: July 2008
Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)
Author(s): Matt Fiedler
Research Area: Social conditions
Keywords: Utilities costs; Income diversity; Household income
Type: Report
Abstract:
Protecting the budgets of low-income consumers is a critical issue in the design of climate-change legislation. The climate change bill recently debated in the Senate proposed delivering assistance to low-income consumers primarily through local utility companies. However, evidence from the only existing federal program that delivers low-income assistance through utility companies — the Lifeline program for telephone service — strongly suggests that an untried utility-based mechanism would miss large numbers of consumers who could be reached using proven alternatives.