A bipartisan group of senators from cold-weather states on Thursday criticized plans to cut the federal program helping low-income families make their homes more energy efficient.

While winter heating costs have soared, support for the federal assistance program has dramatically declined. Last February, President Bush proposed eliminating the program altogether.

An Energy Department spending bill before the Senate would provide $201 million for the fiscal year beginning in October, $26 million less than this year and $40 million less than Congress supplied in 2007.

With the upcoming winter expected to have record high heating costs, this is not the time to reduce a program that helps poor people save in their heating bills, the senators argued in a letter to the leaders of the appropriations committee considering the legislation.

“I hear from Mainers throughout my state that they are panicked about how they are going to heat their homes this winter and deal with the skyrocketing price of home heating oil,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the 13 senators who wrote the letter.

Wholesale fuel oil costs have increased from $2.57 a gallon last December to more than $4 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state agencies that help low-income families meet energy costs, estimates that this winter heating costs for people using fuel oil will soar to nearly $2,600 on average - or about $1,100 more than just two year ago. Homes using natural gas can be expected to see a 20 percent increase to an average of $978.

Funding for the weatherization program should be restored at least to last year’s levels “to help address the crisis facing low income families as they confront continually increasing energy costs,” the senators wrote.

Besides Collins, the letter was signed by:

_ Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, both of Massachusetts, Charles Schumer of New York, and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

_ Republican Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and John Sununu of New Hampshire.

_ Independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

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On the Net:

Energy Department’s Weatherization Program: http://www.eere.energy.gov/weatherization/about.html