American Recovery and Reinvestment Act News

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG)

California Energy Commission staff (CEC) held workshops on the draft EECBG program for small communities (cities less than 35,000 population, counties with unincorporated area populations less than 200,000) the week of July 13th.

The draft guidelines propose $25,000 allocations to cities with less than 5,000 people, and $50,000 for counties with unincorporated area populations of less than 10,000. Larger cities and counties would receive $5 per capita plus their unemployment rate times their population under the proposed guidelines (for example, a city with 40,000 people and 10% unemployment would be allocated $5 x 40,000 + 10% x 40,000 = $204,000). Cities and counties will have to apply to the CEC with a cost-effective program of energy efficiency projects to receive funding. At most 2.5% of the funds received from the CEC can be used for administrative costs.

Guidelines are expected to be finalized in the fall, with an application package ready about the same time.

Large cities and counties had their deadline extended to apply to the US Department of Energy for EECBG funds until August 10th. The majority of cities and counties met the earlier June 25th deadline.

State Energy Plan Guidelines Workshops

California Energy Commission staff scheduled three public workshops to discuss the ARRA State Energy Program preliminary guidelines and schedule for fund distribution. The workshops focused on the three specific program areas for funding opportunities:

• Municipal Financing District Program (AB 811-type programs);
• California Comprehensive Residential Building Program; and
• Municipal and Commercial Building Targeted Measure Retrofit Program.

Up to $96 million will be available through a solicitation progress.

All three workshops will be broadcast over the Internet by Webex, and materials are posted on the CEC website.

The Preliminary SEP Guidelines are posted at
www.energy.ca.gov/recovery/sep.html.

For more information regarding these workshops go to
www.energy.ca.gov/recovery/meetings/.

Renewable Energy Projects

The US Departments of Treasury and Energy announced a program to infuse $3 billion into the renewable energy industry as direct payments. This new program allows taxpayers to forgo tax credits in favor of an immediate reimbursement from the Treasury Department for a portion of the property expense. The direct payments are 10% - 30% of the basis of the property and paid within 60 days of the facility being placed in service or, if later, within 60 days of receiving an application for such grant. Eligible projects must produce electricity, have land use in the U.S., and have been completed or broke ground by the end of 2010. This is not a competitive program, and there is no cap on the total grants.

More information.

Community Renewable Energy Systems

The US Department of Energy announced $21.4 million to support planning and installation of utility-scale community renewable energy projects in up to four communities nationwide. DOE expects applicants to have matching funds from public and private sector. Applications are due September 3, 2009.

More information.

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The web sites for the US DOE and CEC on the recovery plan are below. At the CEC site you can (and should) sign up for email alerts on the programs.

US DOE - www.energy.gov/recovery/
CEC - www.energy.ca.gov/recovery/

The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties have information on their web sites for local governments as well.