States Slow to Use Stimulus Funds for Weatherization

By Andrea Ward
This article originally appeared on BuildingGreen.com

One year after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 awarded $5 billion to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program, just $368 million of it has been spent by states on weatherization projects. A report released by the DOE Office of the Inspector General characterized these findings as “alarming” and surmised that “the nation has not, to date, realized the potential economic benefits of the $5 billion in Recovery Act funds allocated to the weatherization program.”

The Weatherization Assistance Program provides services to low-income homeowners and tenants to make their homes more energy efficient. Of the $5 billion appropriated for these projects, DOE kept $270 million to fund the administration of the remaining $4.7 billion, all of which has now been granted to all 50 states as well as 5 territories, 2 tribes, and the District of Columbia. By December 2009, the grantees had been authorized by DOE to spend up to 50 percent of the funds, but by February 2010 only about 8 percent of it had been drawn for weatherization projects. Of the ten highest-funded states, only two—Ohio (21.2 percent) and Wisconsin (3.7 percent)—had finished weatherizing more than 2 percent of the housing units slated for upgrades. (Fourteen states had completed more than 10 percent of their planned projects, but these states accounted for a much smaller percentage of the total funds granted.)

Those numbers may be skewed slightly, according to DOE, by the likelihood that for much of 2009 states were still weatherizing homes using funds granted before the Recovery Act funds were allocated. But the department identified several other factors that were slowing action, most of them direct consequences of the economic downturn and fiscal disarray at the state level. Many state agencies were subject to hiring freezes and involuntary staff furloughs, for example, which often meant that needed personnel could not be hired (further sapping the program’s job-creation potential) or that those in the position to provide training were unavailable. Other states had delayed budgets and therefore lacked the authority to spend the funds.

Looking ahead at 2010, the report stated, DOE’s primary concern is that weatherization funds may be spent unwisely in an effort to “catch up” to expectations, and as a result will now require states to meet 30 percent of their weatherization goals before drawing down the remaining half of their grant money.

Copyright 2010 by BuildingGreen, LLC

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