CONCORD, N.H. – Northern New Hampshire paper mill workers told Rep. Paul Hodes on Friday they need help now to keep their plant open and prevent crippling job losses in the region.

Hodes said he and his staff are “looking under every rock” to find emergency money to help Fraser Papers, including grants or loans to help the company convert its oil burners to burn biomass, including wood, to make paper and heat.

“Help me find money now, immediately,” Hodes said he asked federal Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

The comments came during a conference call Friday between Hodes and several union officials representing workers at Fraser Papers in Gorham. The company said it will shut down two of its three paper machines in mid-April, and lay off 167 workers.

The mill will continue to operate and employ about 180 workers.

The company referred to the shutdown as “temporary,” saying it will continue to work to reduce the mill’s reliance on oil as a fuel source.

It said the rising cost of oil was a major factor in the layoffs because it must generate a lot of heat to make paper and heat the plant. All the more reason, Hodes and the union reps said, to help the company convert to biomass fuel as soon as possible.

“There’s a real hope that if the mill can switch over to biomass heating, we may be able to save jobs and cut energy costs,” Hodes said.

If there is no guarantee within 30-60 days of financing for a switchover, the entire plant might be shut down within six months, said Eddie DeBlois of the paperworkers’ union.

DeBlois used the word “emergency” several times in the call. He said changing energy policy or trying to get legislation through Congress could take six months to two years, too long to save their jobs, their company and the region.

“We are in an economic situation here that is so dire that we are going to shut down the northern part of New Hampshire,” DeBlois said.

DeBlois said switching two of the plant’s three boilers to biomass might cost $30 million.

Hodes said that while working on immediate sources of money from the Energy Department, Labor Department and even the Agriculture Department, he’s drafting legislation and hopes for quick action on a plan to set up a loan fund to help companies convert from burning oil.

“If the secretary (Bodman) says ‘We don’t have any short-term assistance program, I will go to the (congressional) leadership and try to get bipartisan support for my bill and ram it through as quickly as I can,” Hodes said.

Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu also are working to help workers with job placement and the company with its fuel costs.

Gov. John Lynch said the state’s Rapid Response team, made of representatives from various state departments, will assess the workers to determine what their needs may be in order to help them get new jobs.

Sununu brought Department of Labor and Commerce officials to Groveton in November to address the closing of the Wausau Paper Mill, which cost the area 300 jobs, and said he stands ready to do the same for Fraser.