Alaska LIHEAP gets extra $10 million, with payments starting in September

Alaska households already enrolled in federal heating assistance will not have to file anything new for the state to distribute a new round of federal money in September.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan announced Friday that the state will receive an additional $10 million through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The money nearly doubles Alaska's existing LIHEAP allocation of $12,158,876. Payments from the new pool will be distributed in September and administered automatically based on applications already on file.

In fiscal year 2025, LIHEAP covered home heating for more than 4,300 Alaska households. The average award was $1,554. The funding pays for heating assistance, weatherization and building upgrades, and crisis assistance.

The funding comes as some rural communities face winter fuel prices set by annual barge deliveries. Alaska News previously reported that villages taking a single annual barge delivery are locked into peak fuel prices through the season, with heating fuel topping $15 a gallon in some places and Power Cost Equalization covering electricity rather than heat. In an earlier Alaska News article, the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association was reported cutting its own LIHEAP benefit matrix from $125 to $100 per point for the 2027 season, a 20% reduction across 10 communities. That reduction remains open for public comment through August 15, giving residents of those communities a window to weigh in before it takes effect. The state Division of Public Assistance, which administers the program in Alaska, says LIHEAP is fully open, applications are being processed statewide, and no service delays are expected.

"Alaskans deal with the highest cost of living in the nation, and the recent disruptions to energy supplies have only made this challenge more urgent," Sullivan said. He called the award the second initiative of the National Energy Dominance Council's Alaska Energy Task Force, announced in May with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The task force's first initiative came on July 17, when EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin issued an emergency fuel waiver under Section 211 of the Clean Air Act, an action Sullivan had been advocating as a way to relieve pressure on fuel prices in the state.

"Senator Sullivan's leadership helped secure $10 million in funding so vulnerable Alaskans can be safe in their homes," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

For households on the receiving end, the assistance is what keeps winter heating bills paid and prevents unsafe home temperatures when fuel runs short. Testifying before the state House Finance Committee in May, June Okada told lawmakers that pairing these changes with sufficient funding for the Alaska Heating Assistance Program, to support the increasing number of households needing heating assistance and weatherization on their homes, would significantly help keep Alaskans safe. She said that in the Bering Strait region, several communities were completely out of heating fuel and were turning to electricity, "which shifts costs into unaffordable utility bills."