Time is running out to claim winter fuel payments : Nottingham City Council

Pensions Minister Angela Eagle said:

"I don't want any vulnerable pensioners to be afraid to turn up their heating. That's why we've spent a record £295 million in cold weather payments and £2.7bn in winter fuel payments so far this winter."

[Should we force these people to pay more and freeze more in an insane attempt to bring colder weather?]: Energy costs 'forced 13m into winter of discontent' - myfinances.co.uk

The high cost of energy saw around 13 million households go without heating in order to cut down on their bills last winter, new research has claimed.

A study by comparison service uSwitch.com showed that 37% of Britons occasionally turned off their radiators during the worst period of cold weather in 30 years in order to save money. Another 12% said that they regularly went without heating.

Some 22% of those questioned admitted to being colder than they would have liked as a result of trying to keep costs under control.

[Can Yale students save us from trace amounts of carbon dioxide?]

Through conversations I’ve had on Capitol Hill and in Washington think tanks, I’ve learned the bill has a one-month window within which it could feasibly come to a vote. Starting now. After April 23, Senate policy committees begin closing for summer recess; not long after, Senators begin campaigning hard for reelection, effectively pushing off new legislation until 2011.

If the Democrats lose seats in the Senate, climate legislation is dead until at least 2012. Climate change will continue unabated.
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Climate change isn’t someone else’s problem — it’s our problem, Yale’s problem. Issues like health care and immigration reform have built-in political constituencies. Climate change doesn’t because it threatens voiceless groups like the poor, future generations and non-human life, and it requires a sophisticated understanding of science, economics and politics combined with access to political power in places like Washington.

The bottom line is that we Yalies: young, educated, affluent, soon to be in positions of power, are better situated than any other group to take leadership in the political battle to slow climate change. Let’s start now by lobbying our senators to support the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate and energy bill.