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Elizabeth Cutright Elizabeth Cutright Distributed Energy Editor

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DE Editor's Blog

June 1st, 2009 10:26am PST

Fighting for Funds

Posted By Elizabeth Cutright Comments

Last month, I attended the 2009 Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. The topics ranged from computing to lighting to storage, with a special emphasis on the nexus between politics, technology, and the economy. With a focus on promoting the development of energy efficiency technologies, the summit included presentations and panel discussions that included voices from both the private and public sectors. Much on the minds of participants and audience was ARRA stimulus funds, and whether or not the government could deliver on its promise of providing significant financial support to energy-saving programs. Starting off the summit, UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang began by reading from an e-mail he had recently received from the DOE, encouraging the chancellor to pass along the names of any potential beneficiaries of ARRA funds by May 28, 2009—a mere two weeks after the summit.

The deadline-centric nature of these funds will no doubt prove problematic, not just to individual investors looking to cash-in, but on local governments as well (the deadline for block grant applications is set for June 25). And because of the short time span available for applications, there’s the added concern of minimal oversight, and the possibility that hastily engineered grants will result in a misapplication of funds. Hopefully programs like Green Boot Camp, a two-day training session sponsored by Living Cities slated to take place at Harvard University will help, but with additional deadlines looming for green job training, school renovation, low-income housing weatherization, and Energy Star retrofits of old appliances, it looks like it’ll be a mad scramble for dollars that will characterize the initiation of the ARRA’s energy funding package. 

What do you think? Will the stimulus package hurt or help energy efficiency innovation?   Will a flawed implementation of an ambitious funding program doom promising projects, or simply weed out unworthy pretenders through a Darwinian-like application process?

What Do You Think?

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