$2.6 Billion For Energy Efficient Home Improvements
Department of Energy Maps Efficiency Money
You want money for energy efficient home improvement projects by don’t know where to get it.
On Thursday, the Department of Energy released a handy map that shows how much stimulus money every city in the country is eligible to
receive for energy efficiency. The release of funds last week totals $2.6 billion.
Further details of the program, called the “energy efficiency and conservation block grant program,” are available at the Department of
Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Web site.
For big cities, the numbers are enormous. Houston stands to receive $22.8 million. Boston will get $6.5 million — which is over $1 million
more than it had expected, according to Nick Martin, a spokesman for the Boston mayor’s office. He said that the city was aiming to use
the money to help residents make their homes more energy-efficient, to retrofit municipal buildings and thus save energy and to train
people for green-collar jobs.
Cities have never received stimulus money directly from the federal government before. The block grants were approved by Congress in 2007,
but no money was allocated — until now. States also are due to receive separate money for their state energy offices, and also for a weatherization program to aid low-income families.
Over all, the efficiency money in the stimulus “does appear to be the largest single funding for energy efficiency in
the history of humanity” , said Mr. Seth Kaplan, vice-president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
As our nation takes a giant step forward in ‘greening’ America, homeowners have been givne tremendous opportunities to make significant energy efficient home improvements.
