EDITORIAL: Nonpartisan efforts to ease winter's pain refreshing

Sep. 26—This winter promises to be perilous for New England residents faced with skyrocketing energy prices and record-high inflation that makes every trip to the grocery store an experience of sticker-shock.

The cost of keeping the lights on — and for those who heat with electricity to the keep house warm — is expected to go up as much as 64%, National Grid warned Wednesday. That spike is largely driven by a similar one in the price of natural gas needed to generate power. Meanwhile, oil will go up about 50% and propane 55%, meaning no one is exempt from the consequences.

Without help, impoverished and low-income families will be in crisis, and those with middle incomes will have to make some very difficult choices.

The situation is ominous, which makes it incredibly refreshing to learn that virtually all New England governors — Republicans and Democrats alike — have been working together since summer to avoid a disastrous situation in the coldest, darkest months of the year.

As of Thursday, State House News Service reported, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and other New England states were waiting to hear back from the Biden administration about what the federal government can do to help.

"Ever since the war in the Ukraine broke out, this has been a high concern for every cold-weather place in the world, basically," Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate Republican, said Thursday.

"The governors in New England got together and started talking about this in the summer. We actually wrote a letter to the federal government. We wrote to the Biden administration and said we are very worried about both price and availability of thermal, which is basically heat, whatever the source of it is this winter."

He said they're still waiting on a response, but the effort is "something that literally all of the New England governors have been both talking about and pushing the feds on since July."

Individual states have to help, too, of course. That also means working together on a problem that has no room for politics, which seems to be happening.

The Massachusetts Association for Community Action sent a letter Wednesday to members of the conference committee working on the stalled-out economic development bill and the House Ways and Means Committee, which is reviewing a supplemental budget bill, asking that they include millions of dollars to supplement federal fuel assistance.

"In light of the information we have gathered from our member Community Action Agencies in the past 24 hours that provide fuel assistance to thousands (up to 160,000 statewide) of households in need, we are hopeful that the Legislature will allocate at least $20 million and up to $50 million which would help vulnerable people [avoid] the terrible choices between heating and eating or between heating and medicine," MASSCAP Executive Director Joe Diamond said.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat, made a proposal last week, too, urging the Legislature to create the state's own home heating oil reserve of up to $50 million to help middle- and low-income residents.

"If prices remain high, this could be catastrophic for the working poor and middle-class families who are already struggling to keep up with all of the other issues caused by inflation," Galvin said.

"Purchasing oil right now is a risk that many private companies aren't willing to take, but it's a risk the state needs to take to ensure our residents can survive the winter."

As with most everything these days, politics sit squarely in the middle of heated discussions surrounding the economy.

But rationally speaking, so many factors are at play and there is no single problem, nor a single solution.

But one thing is for sure: Americans are always better when they pull together, rather than crouching in separate corners ready to pounce.

And that's just one of many reasons why it's so invigorating to see governors, legislators and state officials from both sides of the aisle working together to ensure the comfort of the people they represent.