Published: May 01, 2008 10:57 pm            

Rockefeller pushes monthly handouts for low-income motorists to buy gas

BECKLEY, W.Va. — Monthly handouts of $100 to $165 for low-income motorists strapped to buy gas in a time of soaring prices are being proposed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

His idea is patterned after the guidelines of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program designed to assist those with meager budgets to buy fuel to keep their homes heated.

“I’m absolutely outraged at the spike in gas prices and the hardship it is creating on thousands of West Virginians who are struggling to make ends meet,” Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Thursday.

The senator’s proposal follows a controversial plan initially offered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., then mirrored by another presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

That idea was ridiculed by West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox as one that would provide only feeble relief to motorists while robbing the highway fund of sorely needed federal road dollars.

“I’m equally outraged that this hardship is coming at the time that oil companies are pocketing record-breaking profits,” Rockefeller said.

Under the Rockefeller plan, just as the LIHEAP program works, those eligible for monthly gas-help checks must be at 130 percent of poverty level, or $26,845 in annual income for a family of four.

Rockefeller’s plan comes at a time when gas is running $3.75 per gallon in West Virginia.



Mannix Porterfield writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.

        

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