Weatherization Not-a-Happenin’

We’ve included a few blogs on Feed Your Eco explaining how to weatherize your home and the benefits of doing so. We’re not the only ones who understand the importance of this and that’s why $5 billion was allocated to weatherizing homes as part of the 2009 Recovery Act. However, according to a new report from the Energy Department’s inspector general, the program has barely gotten off the ground a year after it started and some of the larger states meet less than 2 percent of their three year goals.

These funds were allocated to help make low-income homes more energy efficient to save money and emissions all while stimulating the job market. “The job creation impact of what was considered to be one of the department’s most ‘shovel ready’ projects has not materialized,” the report said. An example of this takes place in New York where only 280 weatherization projects have been completed out of their 45,400 goal. This goal is projected over three years, but that means that less than 1 percent of the project has been completed, leaving only two more years for full execution.

Since the act included such an increase of funds from other years, state officials are claiming it’s hard to keep up with the increased budgets. “We went from a budget of $13 million for weatherizations to $327 million,” said Gordon Anderson, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. “So we needed to get a serious plan in place to assure that our agency and all our contractors had the adequate capacity to administer the funds.”

Hopefully this plan will happen fast and will be effectively implemented. Weatherizing homes is one of the easiest things we can do to save money and the planet, and of course, increase available jobs.