US Department of Energy rolls out major weatherisation funding

2009-07-14T00:00:00-00:00

The US Department of Energy has announced the latest in a series of weatherisation programmes to receive multi-million dollar funding.

Last week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $288 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to weatherise over 91,000 low-income households in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

ARRA funds of more than $448 million have also been granted to Alabama, Idaho, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming to expand weatherisation programmes for more than 125,000 homes.

The announcements follow allocations of $304 million last month for similar schemes to improve the performance of 85,000 homes in Georgia, Illinois and New York and $453 million to tackle 165,000 homes in California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

The weatherisation programmes aim to spend around $6500 on each home to improve its energy efficiency and producing an average 32% saving on heating bills. Families at the federal poverty level – for example, a family of four on $44,000 a year – qualify for help under the schemes.

For further information:
www.energy.gov
www.recovery.gov

Afion Media Ltd

US Department of Energy rolls out major weatherisation funding