ALBANY — The Energy Committee of the state Assembly is holding a statewide series of press events to highlight the difficulties likely to be faced by New Yorkers as soaring energy costs are expected to make home heating oil more expensive this winter.
But, for now at least, it looks as if residents of the north country, the state's coldest region, will not have an opportunity to weigh in.
The first conferences were held Monday in Albany and Syracuse, with future events scheduled for Niagara Falls, Rochester, Yonkers, Central Islip and Kingston. No conferences are currently planned for the north country.
"We're hitting as many media markets as possible," said Assemblyman Kevin A. Cahill when asked why such an event was not scheduled for Northern New York. "We will try to fit the north country in."
Mr. Cahill, a Democrat representing Ulster and Dutchess counties, is chairman of the Assembly Energy Committee.
"Given the record high price of home heating fuel, far too many New Yorkers will have to choose between heating their homes throughout the long months of ice and snow and bitter cold that are coming and feeding their families," Mr. Cahill said in a press release. "We cannot wait until the crisis is upon us before we act."
On June 18, the Assembly, by a 120-16 vote, passed a bill, A.11590, which would levy a 2 percent gross receipts tax on oil companies, along with a windfall recapture tax, "equal to 4 percent times the excess of the average retail sales price per gallon of (gasoline and diesel) fuel, as determined by the commissioner, over $2 per gallon."
This measure is retroactive to 2005, when the state's gasoline sales tax was capped at $2.
Oil companies also would be prohibited from passing their added costs along to their customers. The funds raised by these taxes also would:
■ Add $550 million to the Home Energy Assistance Program. This would increase the size of HEAP's regular grant and raise the program's income eligibility level to 80 percent of family income, up from the current 60 percent.
■ Allocate $250 million for energy conservation, to include weatherization and home energy efficiency programs.
According to the justification statement accompanying the bill, the measure "is necessary to recapture lost tax revenue for the benefit of the people of the state, by enhancing existing home heating assistance and energy conservation and weatherization programs."
In the text of the bill, a statement said the Legislature "has found that capping the motor fuel sales tax has failed to provide the people of the state the savings that should have materialized due to unnecessary price inflation. It is the intent of this legislature to recapture this lost revenue and to use that revenue to ensure that the most vulnerable residents of this state will have access to the heating services essential to their survival."
The north country's two Republican assemblywomen, Dierdre K. Scozzafava of Gouverneur and Janet L. Duprey of Peru, both voted in favor of the measure, while 13 of their Republican colleagues voted against it.
The bill was referred to the Senate Rules Committee, which took no action on it before the regular Legislative session ended June 24.
"The enormous increase in heating costs could lead to terrible suffering for hundreds of thousands of New York families," said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "The Assembly package not only offers financial help, but it helps fund weatherization programs that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York state. It's a 'win-win' proposal and the governor and Senate should embrace it."
