With winter heating costs expected to set new record highs, the Bush administration said yesterday it would release $131 million in emergency heating assistance grants through its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP.

Rhode Island’s share of the assistance is $1.9 million, which will allow it to help an additional 3,000 families, said Matteo P. Guglielmetti, who heads the state’s LIHEAP program through the state’s Office of Energy Resources.

Earlier this month, the state’s congressional delegation, and legislators around the country, urged President Bush to release the money before the Sept. 30 deadline. Had the money not been released by that date, the ability to use those funds would have expired, the legislators said.

“I am pleased that the president responded to our request and will release this critical funding,” said Sen. Jack Reed, in a statement. “This release of funding should allow more families who have fallen behind on their utility bills to have their power restored before the cold winter months.”

The news came the same day as state energy officials released their annual projection of winter heating costs. The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association predicted that families across the country will pay an average of 10.5 percent more to heat their homes this winter, compared with last winter.

Those who will see the biggest increase are home heating oil users, according to the projections. The association projected the average retail price of heating oil will be $3.10 a gallon, a 28-percent increase over last year’s average of $2.42 a gallon. For a household that uses 592 gallons of oil, the total cost would be $1,834, compared with $1,433 last year.

Natural gas heating costs are expected to rise by 6 percent, while electricity heating is expected to increase by 7 percent, the association said.

The price of heating oil, used by about 172,000 households or about 42 percent of all Rhode Island households, has just set a new record high in the state. On Monday, the Office of Energy Resources said the average retail price was $2.789 a gallon, the highest price ever recorded. The price increased 6 cents over last week and 13 cents over the past two weeks.

LIHEAP grants are available to low-income families who are at or below 60 percent of the Rhode Island median income. A family of two can earn up to $31,900 and still be eligible for heating assistance; a family of four can earn up to $46,978. The grants are paid directly to the recipients’ energy vendor, such as an oil dealer or a utility company.

Guglielmetti said his office has just opened its crisis program, which provides emergency assistance to a household whose utility service has been shut off for non-payment. That program, as well as LIHEAP, is administered through local Community Action Programs, located around the state.

Even with the additional LIHEAP money made available yesterday, the office that manages the program for Rhode Island said there is still less money available than there was last year. The state received a total of about $19 million last year in LIHEAP grants, Guglielmetti said. As it stands now, the state will get about $15.4 million.

So the state plans to reduce grants by about 25 percent. The average grant last year was about $450, he said, but this year’s average will probably be about $350.

And fewer families will be able to get assistance, Guglielmetti said. About 28,600 families were helped last year. This winter, Guglielmetti said, current projections show there’s enough money to help about 25,000 families.

The amount of money Rhode Island receives could increase, depending on what figures Congress finally decides on when it passes the federal budget, he said.

The number of families in Rhode Island who cannot afford to pay their utility bills appears to be rising. The number of utility shutoffs for non-payment are at their highest level in at least 10 years, according to figures provided by the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers and calculations by The Providence Journal. State figures show that through August, there were 20,326 shutoffs for the year, which is higher than totals for the first eight months of any year since 1997, when the state began tracking shutoffs.

A state-run heating-assistance program was supposed to begin over the summer, but it never got off the ground. Even though Governor Carcieri signed into law a 2006 bill that created the program, the budget passed by the General Assembly provided no money to finance it. The governor and the General Assembly faced huge budget shortfalls this year.

tbarmann@projo.com