Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday a Wisconsin corporation is one of 25 organizations and states that will receive millions in federal funding for energy efficiency projects.
The Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation will receive $20 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to retrofit buildings and homes across the state. Retrofitting involves doing things like adding installation, replacing windows and other ways to make buildings more energy efficient.
“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, but also create jobs right here in America,” Biden said in a statement. “This year, because of the historic clean energy investments in the Recovery Act, we’re poised to make greater strides than ever in building a nationwide clean energy economy.”
The announcement marks the kickoff of five days of White House administration events in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
The government will award more than $450 million for these projects across the country. The projects are expected to generate 30,000 jobs in the next three years and save consumers about $100 million annually in utility costs, according to White House estimates.
The Wisconsin Energy Efficiency program, or WE2, will use the funds in three major cities –Milwaukee, Madison and Racine — and will concentrate on weatherizing and retrofitting industrial, commercial and residential buildings.
“We recognize that there is a shortage of jobs in our community but that there is no shortage of opportunities to do energy efficiency work. This grant will allow us to catalyze the private market for energy efficiency retrofits,” said Erick Shambarger, Milwaukee’s acting director of Environmental Sustainability in a statement released by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
Overall, the WE2 program will receive $120 million, as the federal grant will be matched by various private donors.
Madison officials have been working on various energy efficiency initiatives recently and will soon develop retrofitting programs for residential and commercial buildings, as well as a job training program for energy efficiency projects.
Tom Eggert, director of the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Program, said projects like these have three main positive effects. The first is the positive impact on the environment, the second is the lowering of heating bills for people who live in the buildings that will be retrofitted and the last is that these programs will put people to work who may be unemployed.
Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group Chair Scott Thompson said retrofitting is the easiest and cheapest way to make homes more energy efficient and a good way to combat dependence on fossil fuels.
According to White House estimates, 40 percent of the energy in the United States is consumed by residential and commercial buildings. They also release 40 percent of carbon emissions.
Retrofitting techniques can reduce energy consumption by 40 percent in each building and save $40 billion per year on energy bills. It can also decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 160 million metric tons per year.
