Earth Equity News

Green Energy Funds Not Getting Spent. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, August 13, 2010."The recession is lingering, and so is the unspent stimulus money that was meant to help end it. The latest example is the $3.2 billion that Congress voted in February 2009 as part of an economic stimulus package to simultaneously provide jobs and improve energy efficiency through block grants to states and cities. Only about 8.45% of the money had been spent by the beginning of this month, according to an audit released on August 13 by the inspector general of the Energy Department, and it has produced or saved only about 2,300 jobs as of the second quarter of this year. The program was to provide money for the purchase of better lighting or heating and cooling equipment for buildings like city halls and schools. But it is off to the same slow start as a bigger program that was initiated at the same time to weatherize the homes of low-income people around the country. An audit of that program in February, also by the inspector general, found that only $368.2 million of $4.73 billion, or less than 8%, had been spent... The problems cited are similar to the ones reported with the weatherization grants: when Congress approved the program, the Energy Department did not have the regulations or the staff to process applications. Local governments lacked the staff to make applications or handle the money they received. And federal money comes with strings attached."