Efficiency First

Vice President Joe Biden kicked off five days of White House events marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by announcing the selection of 25 communities to receive up to $452 million in Recovery Act funding for energy efficiency retrofit programs. The funding will support public- and private-sector partnerships targeting large-scale retrofit initiatives, and make energy efficiency improvements accessible to hundreds of thousands of homeowners and businesses.

“This investment in some of the most innovative energy efficiency projects across the country will not only help homeowners and businesses make cost-cutting retrofit improvements,” Biden said, “but also create jobs right here in America.”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu added that the initiative “will help overcome the barriers to making energy efficiency easy and accessible to all – inconvenience, lack of information, and lack of financing. Block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, we will make our communities more energy efficient and help families save money. At the same time, we’ll create thousands of jobs and strengthen our economy.”

The DOE estimates that the program models created through the Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative will save households and businesses about $100 million annually in energy bills, and leverage private-sector investments to create some 30,000 jobs across the country during the next three years.

Here is the full list of Retrofit Ramp-Up Awards announced yesterday, for projects planned to begin in fall 2010 (final award amounts are subject to negotiation):

Austin, Texas – $10 million
Boulder County, Colorado – $25 million
Camden, New Jersey – $5 million
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning – $25 million
Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, Ohio – $17 million
Greensboro, North Carolina – $5 million
Indianapolis, Indiana – $10 million
Kansas City, Missouri – $20 million
Los Angeles County, California – $30 million
Lowell, Massachusetts – $5 million
State of Maine – $30 million
State of Maryland – $20 million
State of Michigan – $30 million
State of Missouri – $5 million
Omaha, Nebraska – $10 million
State of New Hampshire – $10 million
New York State Research and Development Authority – $40 million
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – $25 million
Phoenix, Arizona – $25 million
Portland, Oregon – $20 million
San Antonio, Texas – $10 million
Seattle, Washington – $20 million
Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance – $20 million
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, Ohio – $15 million
Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation – $20 million

More information about the award recipients is available at http://www.energy.gov/news/documents/Retrofit_Ramp-Up_Project_List.pdf [PDF]