Gov. John Baldacci has devised a series of short-term actions to help Mainers meet the difficult challenge of high energy prices through the end of 2008. From heating oil aid to an optional four-day work week for some state workers, the governor's plan is an appropriate and thoughtful response to the growing crisis in the state.

The governor's $12.5 million plan takes half of its money from what a press release calls "future quarters" (read: unspecified other spending that will have to be made up through cuts or by dipping into the rainy day fund). The other half is money reallocated from other programs that will not need to be paid back. The plan distributes it largely as heating oil aid, but also in a number of other ways:

* $7.5 million in increases to the state's recipients of the federal heating oil aid program known as LIHEAP; some of that aid will also go to those not poor enough to qualify for the LIHEAP program. This will raise the benefit from $415 to $500.

* $2 million for weatherizing an additional 500 homes, which is in addition to an anticipated $6.5 million from the feds that will pay to weatherize 1,500 homes. This program can reduce fuel use -- and thus costs -- by 20 percent.

* $1 million to clean, tune and repair the furnaces in 1,500 LIHEAP-eligible homes.

* $2 million-and-change for loans to businesses for energy conservation project; provide energy-saving recommendations to low-income households; increase carpooling programs across the state; and to distribute a couple thousand Keep ME Warm Kits (that contain energy-savers like window caulking, shrink wrap and compact fluorescent lightbulbs).

Baldacci is also establishing an alternative work schedule pilot program in the state's finance department that will allow staff the option of four-day work weeks as an energy-saving measure. And in a nod to one of the state's endemic problems, Baldacci said Friday that many families are having trouble paying for adequate food because high energy prices, and his administration has already asked the federal government to give more generous food stamp benefits to certain LIHEAP-eligible families. That request has already been granted.

In addition to the governor's plan, Statehouse Democratic leaders also announced on Friday that they were convening a bipartisan group of lawmakers to assess, prior to swearing-in on Dec. 3, the scope of the energy crisis. That group would then propose actions the Legislature could take immediately during the new session to deal with the energy crisis.

Both the governor's assistance plan and Democratic leaders' strategy of look-before-we-leap strike us as precisely the right kind of measured approach necessary at this time (though we do wonder if it would have been better for Baldacci to propose fewer of the smaller measures and just put all the state's money toward fuel assistance and weatherization). We're not in a full-blown crisis yet, though we may very well be if energy prices stay high or rise even further.

Yet if you listened to Statehouse Republicans on Friday, you'd think the governor and his Democratic allies under the Capitol dome weren't doing a thing. The GOP spent the last couple of weeks promoting a special session to authorize putting $10 million in state funds into the LIHEAP program. They pledged to forgo their special session pay in order to save the $40,000-a-day cost of such a session and urged Democrats to join them in their vow of sacrifice. And the Republican leadership kept hammering away on the need for that special session -- even after the governor's plan was revealed, a plan that puts more than $10 million toward energy assistance, including LIHEAP.

Even after the Democrats and their leader had devised plans to do just what the Republicans urged -- "to make sure our most vulnerable Maine citizens stay warm this winter," as Senate GOP leader Carol Weston put it -- the GOP ignored the facts and pushed for the session and for sacrifice on an altar that no longer existed. "Republican Press Release: Maine Citizens Should Call Their Legislators And Ask For A Special Session!" shouted one missive. And by keeping up those calls, the Statehouse GOP overplayed its hand, revealing the political agenda behind the behavior.

There will not be enough money to go around this winter to keep all Mainers safe and warm. There are no pots of gold at the end of the rainbow; there's no rainbow. What we can do, and what the governor has just done, is work within the restrictions of a limited budget to do the best we can to help the vulnerable among us. Their numbers are growing, and the plans just revealed constitute a reasonable and compassionate start to the much bigger task ahead for us all.