Obama Administration Accomplishments List
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- Accomplishment: $3.2 billion to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (ref).
- What does it mean?
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG.) was created in 2007, but was left completely unfunded until the Obama administration made funding of the EECBG part of the ARRA stimulus bill in 2009 (ref).
The EECBG promotes energy efficiency through building codes, inspections, energy audits, and energy efficient retrofits (ref).
- Why does it matter?
Increasing energy efficiency in old buildings reduces fossil fuel emissions, creates green jobs, and saves money in the long run (ref). Additionally, with a lower demand on power supplies, those nasty brown-outs and black-outs we get during heat waves will be fewer and farther between.
Sometimes it doesn't seem like much needs to be changed, but all I need to do to remind myself how much energy is lost in most buildings is to lean against my front door in the winter and feel my body heat seep out. My family has put a lot of time, brute effort, and money into attempting to make our home more energy efficient, and that's just for one small house! Imagine that multiplied by all the rooms in buildings and all the old buildings waiting to be updated. A grant program without funding is like an iPhone app in a no-reception area. What's the point?
A stipulation of the funding require funds to be obligated within 18 months at the latest of the award date (ref). A side note before I continue: legalese is annoying. For normal people like me, funds being obligated roughly translates to "legally bound to be used for a specific purpose." At least, that's the best I can make out of it. The reason the stipulation was in place is to have the funds used to create green jobs as soon as possible, instead of allowing the funds to sit in waiting. This hasn't gone off without a hitch -- Energy.gov has found some of the funds were not allocated and inaccuracies appear to exist in some of the monitoring data, and department management is addressing the issues (ref).
