DULUTH, Minn. — Mary Heilman and her husband recently received a $4,000 bill to fix their boiler.
As retirees living on a tight budget, Heilman said it’s hard enough to keep their propane tanks filled in the grueling Northland winters. So they were relieved when the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency stepped in and covered the costs of the repair.
“Without energy assistance, there’s no way we could be in our home,” the Makinen resident said. “We own our house, we own our property, but we can’t even keep up with taxes and stuff.”
The Heilmans are among more than 100,000 Minnesota households that received help last winter with monthly heating bills and/or emergency services through the state’s Energy Assistance Program.
But federal funding for the initiative appears to be on the chopping block, state and local officials warned. Last month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire staff responsible for managing the program, and the Trump administration has proposed to eliminate its $4.1 billion budget.
“The average benefit for households this year has been just over $700, and those funds make a big difference in people’s lives,” Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold said Monday. “Without energy assistance, thousands of Minnesotans would face higher energy costs.
“And beyond that,” she said, “they would be at risk for having their utilities shut off in winter, receiving no help if their furnace breaks and they have no heat in the middle of winter, or being forced to choose between heating their homes and buying groceries or medicine.”
Residents of the 8th Congressional District spend an average of 13% of their household income on energy — the highest in the state, according to Department of Commerce data. Northeastern Minnesota also has the highest overall energy costs and the highest share of households receiving emergency benefits.
Annie Levenson-Falk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said her advocacy organization tracked 91,000 households that had electric or gas service disconnected by regulated utilities for nonpayment in 2024 — a record number that does not even include customers of rural cooperatives and municipal utilities or those who can’t afford to refill propane tanks.
She added that nearly half of households receiving assistance have a person over 60; 4 in 10 have a person with a disability; and 17% have a child under age 6.
“This figure has been persistently high since the pandemic,” Levenson-Falk said, “compounded by the cost of housing and inflation throughout the family budget. Energy is unaffordable for too many Minnesotans.”
AEOA surveys residents receiving benefits, according to energy assistance coordinator Jean Pelletier, and has found that many are retired, on Social Security and/or have been left in dire financial situations as a result of circumstances such as the death of a spouse.
“We may be able to resolve these life-threatening situations when funding is available,” she said, “but if (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) funding is cut, there will not be options to help our community members in need, and there are likely people that will not be able to stay in their homes.”
The state initiative is entirely funded by the federal program, Arnold said, and Minnesota stands to lose about $125 million annually if funding is eliminated. She noted the program also helps keep costs down across the board, as unpaid bills result in costs being passed on to other customers.
Advocates of LIHEAP urged Congress to maintain the program, which has for decades received broad, bipartisan support and helps roughly 6.2 million people nationally offset the costs of both heating and air conditioning.
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