A couple years ago, paying just under $4 a gallon at the pump would have seemed unthinkably expensive. Now, most of us consider it a bargain.

The recent decline in prices for gas and heating oil, however, should not bring us a false sense of security as we prepare for what is expected to be a cold and expensive winter.

At $4 a gallon, the average benefit ($415) residents receive through the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program doesn’t go nearly as far as it once did. According to Betsy Sawyer-Manter, senior vice president of organizational operations for the People’s Regional Opportunity Program, which administers the federal heating assistance program in Maine, the average benefit paid for almost 110 days a few years ago, 30 days a year ago and is expected to cover eight to 15 days this year.

It doesn’t take an economist to see that this is going to put the squeeze on the low-income families that depend on this assistance. These are the same families who are paying more to put gas in their cars and food on the table. Their incomes are not going up to help them meet the costs because many of their employers are struggling with the same costs.

The effects, however, are reaching beyond low-income families, to people who have recently bought a home or are trying to start a family – people like 26-year-old Bret Mills of Westbrook, who is taking on a second, part-time job at Anthony’s Italian Kitchen in Portland, and Brian Dunn of Gorham, who is spending his weekend afternoons cutting wood for the winter because he can’t afford to spend as much as he did last year on oil.

At minimum, the federal contribution to LIHEAP will need to increase drastically to help people get through the winter. State officials expect the federal government to offer a significant increase in funding for heating assistance to northern states this winter, but it’s unclear whether that will come close to meeting the need in Maine, where 80 percent of homes are heated with oil.

The problem may go beyond the reaches of government assistance. People and communities will need to support one another by giving to local heating assistance programs and working to set up emergency shelters for people who are unable to heat their homes.

In the long term, this state will have to come to terms with what its energy costs will do to the economy. Expenses are outpacing incomes. The average main household spent $45,419 on overall expenses – almost $2,000 more than the median income – according to a recent study by the Maine Public Spending Research Group. Because so many people in this state depend on oil for both gas and heat, high prices siphon money out of Maine’s economy.

Most experts are predicting that, despite the occasional dip, oil prices will continue trending upward. That means, unless we free ourselves from oil through alternative heating and energy sources, it will continue to drag all of us down.

Brendan Moran, editor