BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Louisiana will receive an extra $41.4 million in home energy assistance funding in addition to an annual appropriation of $50.3 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was established in 1981 to help Americans who spend the highest portions of their income covering their heating and cooling bills, often in the form of payments directly to energy providers.
LIHEAP may also be used to weatherize a home to improve energy efficiency.
Entergy, which reported $1.082 billion in net income for its Louisiana subsidiary in 2020, also offers an energy bill assistance program. The Power to Care program matches donations solicited from customers 1:1 up to $1 million total.
Nationally, the additional funds from the American Rescue Plan Act raised the amount of assistance available from the program to more than twice what was allocated before the COVID-19 pandemic.
To see if you qualify for assistance, check the LIEAP page on the federal benefits website.