Big Oil Rejects Wisconsin's Request to Help with Energy Costs

MADISON, Wis. -- The head of Wisconsin's consumer protection department sent a letter to representatives of five major oil companies asking that the firms voluntarily contribute a portion of recent record profits to help poor people faced with high energy bills this winter and they refused to do so, reported Madison.com.

According to the report, the companies replied that it's the government's job to fund assistance.

"BP agrees with the intent of Wisconsin's low-income energy assistance program to provide financial assistance to families that are unable to pay their utility bills," Mark Holstein of BP replied, according to the report. "BP further believes that it is the role of government to determine the funding level for specific programs through allocation of its general revenues. BP has not made direct contributions to programs such as this and declines to do so now."

"Chevron supports full funding of the (federal) Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program but does not believe funding should be done by the energy industry," responded Margaret Ward of Chevron, according to Madison.com. "Chevron's role is to invest to provide new energy supplies. Since 2002 Chevron has reinvested the equivalent of our profits to help produce more energy."

"The government's role is to best determine the priority and the funding of programs such as LIHEAP. Congress funding and prioritization of other similar programs should be completely independent of oil industry earnings," she continued.

Responses by ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips were similar, and Shell has asked for an extension, Gary Radloff, a spokesman for Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the state's Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection, told Madison.com.

"Even one- or two-tenths of a percentage point of your most recent quarterly profits would help thousands of Wisconsin residents make it through this period of punishing heating costs without being forced to choose between medicine, food and heating their homes," Nilsestuen wrote on Dec. 30, according to the report.

The numbers of Wisconsin residents requesting assistance with energy costs rose sharply in 2005 following a spike in natural gas and oil prices, Nilsestuen said in his letter to the companies whose representatives who appeared at a Dec. 1 hearing in Milwaukee,.

In one year, Wisconsin has seen a rise of more than 88 percent in payments through the Wisconsin Public Benefits Fund -- from $5.6 million to $10.6 million -- as the number of clients requesting help rose from 63,239 in 2004 to 69,724 in 2005, he added in the report.

Moreover, Nilsestuen told Madison.com, the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program paid out $30.6 million, up from $21.7 million the prior year. Clients increased from 71,349 to 78,494.

Noting that Gov. Jim Doyle has already directed that an additional $16 million in state funds be made available to provide bill payment assistance, Nilsestuen said that voluntary financial assistance was first requested during the Dec. 1 hearing, reported Madison.com.

"We have yet to receive a response to that request," Nilsestuen wrote.