County lands millions in federal green energy grants

Led by L.A. County officials, California’s clean and green energy programs got a major boost this week when Vice President Joseph Biden announced the list of 25 communities around the nation to receive a cut of the $452 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding to “ramp-up” energy efficiency building retrofits.

Rather than compete against each other for the federal funds, L.A. County and other parts of the state agreed to collaborate on their push for the money, a strategy that paid off handsomely. California collectively netted $30 million in new grant funding, of which $12 million will be dedicated exclusively to L.A. County. With funding from the Department of Energy’s ramp-up initiative, public agencies and private entities will soon launch neighborhood programs to rapidly expand energy retrofit projects, which can later be replicated at the state and national level.

Over the next few months, county officials will sit down with their federal counterparts and hammer out a detailed spending proposal, which will comprise a mix of direct financial incentives for retrofit projects like insulation, double-pane windows, heating and cooling systems and solar-power installations, as well as indirect investment in education, marketing and outreach programs.

And the $26 million county energy-efficiency grant applications that the California Energy Commission (CEC) turned down earlier this year? Not dead yet. County negotiators have been meeting with CEC officials in an effort to tap into other funding sources to keep County energy programs green and growing.

Posted 4/21/2010