CEE Industry Partners Meeting
October 1st, 2009
Bryan Berringer, U.S. DOE
In his presentation
at the CEE Industry Partners Meeting in New Orleans at the beginning of
October, Bryan Berringer of the U.S. Department of Energy outlined the
allocation of funding, projected results, and national trends of the American
Recovery & Reinvestment
Act (Recovery Act).
Signed into law February 17, 2009
in order to:
- Jumpstart the economy
- Create and save millions of jobs
- Put a down payment on addressing long term challenges
The Recovery Act will require hard work and collaboration from the following groups among many others:
- Homeowners
- Scientists
- Local and state governments
- Industry
- Small businesses
Berringer outlines Energy Secretary Steven Chu's key objectives for the Recovery Act:
- Getting good projects underway quickly
- Ensuring projects have lasting value
- Delivering an unprecedented degree of transparency
- Making a significant down payment on the nation's environmental future
Congress approved $787 billion total funding for the Recovery Act which applies for the fiscal year 2009 through the fiscal year 2012. In a pie chart he presented, Berringer displayed how the allocation of these funds will shift from a huge focus on health (64% of the 2009 funding) to a focus on other long term economic opportunities such as:
- Transportation (30% of 2012 funding)
- Education and training (19%)
- Income security (17%)
- Energy and environment (17%)
- Community development (16%)
The Department of Energy portion of Recovery Act funding totals $32.7 billion, excluding the $12.5 billion in loan programs. Loan programs include:
- $6.5 billion for DOE power administration borrowing authority
- $6 billion for the rapid deployment of renewable energy
Of that total $32.7 billion in DOE funding, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) gets $16.8 billion in Recovery Act Funding which is split up into two areas:
- EERE Directed Funding ($14.35 billion)
- EERE Discretionary Research and Development ($2.5 billion)
The EERE Directed Funding is then allocated to the following programs (in billions):
- Weatherization Assistance Program ($5)
- Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants ($3.2)
- State Energy Program ($3.1)
- Advanced Battery and Hybrid Components Manufacturing ($2)
- Transportation Electrification ($0.4)
- ENERGY STAR® Rebates ($0.3)
- Clean Cities Alternative Fuels Pilot Program ($0.3)
The $2.5 billion
in EERE Discretionary RD&D is allocated to the following (in
billions):
- Technology RD&D
($2.5)
- Biomass ($0.8)
- Geothermal Technologies ($0.4)
- Information and Communications Technology ($0.05)
The EECBG program will give formula and competitive grants to Native American tribes, cities, counties, and states. The purpose of the program is to spur economic growth and meet long term energy goals by assisting tribal, local, and state governments with:
- Improving energy efficiency
- Reducing total energy use
- Reducing fossil fuel emissions
More than $1.4 billion has been awarded to date, with over 1,200 of the 2,348 grants. The EECBG program could potentially:
- Create 52,059 jobs
- Retain 12,313 jobs
- Save 228 billion kWh of energy
- Topic 1—$390
million for community-scale building retrofits through innovative
partnerships with banks, developers, and local governments that
will serve as national role models for grass roots energy efficiency
efforts
- Topic 2—$64
million for eligible local governments
The program helps low-income households improve the efficiency of their homes by allocating funds to states and tribes, which then distribute funds to local agencies.
$2.3 billion has already been allocated with 58 grants. The Weatherization Assistance Program could potentially:
- Save low-income families an average of $350 or more on energy bills per year
- Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from low-income households by an estimated 1.79 tons annually
This program distributes funds to states and territories according to their unique energy needs in order to carry out renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.
The State Energy Program has already allocated $1.5 billion with 56 grants. The projected results of this program are identical to that of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program.
Bryan Berringer pointed out some national trends that the DOE has made note of through researching the results of the State Energy Program including:
- Innovative policy work
- Unique financial and technical programs
- Dozens of new revolving loan funds ($540M)
- Manufacturing support and industry partnerships
- New major sustainability initiatives
- Leveraging existing EERE programs
According to Berringer, states throughout the U.S. are allocating the funding they receive through the State Energy Program similar to the following statisitics:
- 51% towards buildings
- 29% towards electric power and renewable energy
- 8% towards industry
- 5% towards policy, planning, and energy security
- 4% towards transportation
- 3% towards energy education
This program offers rebates in order to increase consumer awareness of energy efficient choices with the intent to spur sales of energy efficient appliances and significantly reduce energy and water use in U.S. homes. Each state or territory may select its own ENERGY STAR-qualified products to rebate. More information on federal tax
credits for 2009 can be found at the ENERGY STAR Web site.
American people want to know who is receiving the money, and they want to know they are receiving value for their hard earned tax dollars. The DOE will be posting weekly updates on their Web site, along with setting up a call center to handle activity. Visit
recovery.gov or energy.gov/recovery to stay informed.
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