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2.2 Crisis Intervention The federal LIHEAP statute (42 U.S.C. 8623, § 2605; see Appendix D – Federal LIHEAP Statute) requires a timely and effective energy crisis intervention program for households experiencing an energy emergency and in need of immediate assistance. Life-Threatening Crisis A LIHEAP-eligible life-threatening crisis must be resolved or mitigated within eighteen (18) hours from the initial communication of the crisis situation to the LSP. An applicant household is considered to be in a life-threatening crisis situation when either the heating and/or electric is currently shut off, disconnected, or inoperable, or the household’s bulk fuel heating source is completely out of fuel; and the household qualifies as an vulnerable population household, or there is a documented medical need with an extreme safety concern, or there is a need for a propane tank safety inspection. Non-Life-Threatening Crisis A LIHEAP-eligible crisis situation is an energy emergency when there is a potential shut- off, depletion, or inoperability of the heating source or electric service and it is not considered a life-threatening crisis situation as described above. Non-life-threatening crisis situations must be addressed with a mitigating action within forty-eight (48) hours from the time of the initial communication of the crisis situation to the LSP. For metered utilities, a household will be considered to be in crisis if it has received a current Notice of Disconnection on residence’s primary heating fuel, or is enrolled in an arrearage management plan as a result of having received a Notice of Disconnection, or has already been disconnected. This also applies to an electric utility, regardless of whether it is required to power a furnace or thermostat in order to heat with another fuel type. For applicant households that have a prepaid electric utility account, a household will be considered to be in crisis if they are within ten (10) days of running out of funds in their account based on current daily usage for the past thirty (30) days or has already depleted its account. For deliverable bulk heating fuels, a household will be considered to be in crisis if its propane or fuel oil tank is at or below 25% full, or is completely out of fuel. If an applicant household heats using wood, corn, pellets, coal, or other biofuel, it will be defined as in crisis if it is within 21 days of running out of its current supply of heating fuel or has already depleted its fuel supply. Timely Intervention LSP procedures must be in place to address a crisis within the time frames noted above. Examples of how this may be accomplished include maintaining open appointment slots each day to address crisis applications, contacting the utility vendor on behalf of the client to notify them of an application, or by making and documenting timely referrals to other