Deadline Fast Approaching for Eligible Customers of Low Income Heating Assistance Program

PITTSBURGH, March 19 /PRNewswire/ — The deadline to apply for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, also known as LIHEAP, has been extended to April 3, 2009.

The area gas utilities — Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, Dominion Peoples and Equitable Gas — are encouraging customers to apply as soon as possible. More Pennsylvanians are eligible for the LIHEAP Program this year because of an expansion in the program’s income guidelines to 60 percent of median income. For example, a family of four can make $44,443 and be eligible for the program and a single-person household is eligible if the income is $23,110 or less.

With the change in income guidelines, an additional 100,000 households in Pennsylvania are eligible to receive larger grants. The LIHEAP-CRISIS program can provide grants up to $800 for eligible families who have received a shut off notice or have heating-related problems.

LIHEAP is a federally funded program that provides a one-time cash grant applied directly to the customer’s home heating bill. Although LIHEAP is administered through the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), it is not a public assistance program.

Applicants can apply at county assistance offices, through their natural gas utility and through social service agencies. Online enrollment is another option that customers may use to apply for LIHEAP. Customers can access the site through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Service Web site (COMPASS) at www.compass.state.pa.us.

Individuals also can contact their county assistance office for a LIHEAP application. Customers who received LIHEAP grants last year were sent a new application via U.S. Mail. Customers can contact their natural gas company for details about LIHEAP and other assistance programs by calling one of the following numbers:

    Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania      1-800-272-2714
    Dominion Peoples                  1-800-400-WARM (9276)
    Equitable Gas                     1-800-644-8090

To apply, the utility customer must present the following:

1. Names of people in the household
2. Dates of birth for people in the household
3. Social Security numbers for all household members
4. Proof of income for all members of the household
5. A copy of a recent heating bill.

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, with local headquarters in Canonsburg, serves more than 412,000 customers in 26 counties. More information about Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania and Columbia Gas of Maryland is available at www.columbiagas.com.

Dominion Peoples is a subsidiary of Dominion, is one of the nation’s largest producers of energy with a portfolio of more than 27,000 megawatts of generation. Dominion also serves retail energy customers in 11 states and 355,000 gas utility customers in southwestern Pennsylvania. For more information about Dominion, visit the company’s Web site at www.dom.com.

Equitable Gas Company, a subsidiary of EQT Corporation provides natural gas distribution services to more than 270,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. For additional information about Equitable Gas Company, visit www.equitablegas.com.

    Contacts:

    Wayne Desbrow
    Equitable Gas
    (412) 553-5738

    Elmore Lockley
    Dominion Peoples
    (412) 232-6767

    Bethany Burtyk
    Columbia Gas of Pa
    1-888-416-4224

SOURCE Dominion