Ten central Iowa cities are applying for up to $25 million in federal grant money to create jobs and bring more energy efficiency to homes, businesses and government buildings.
The money would supplement federal programs like Energy Star and contribute to efforts to curb climate change.
“Our region has an opportunity to be part of a program that would bring energy-efficiency improvements to thousands of local homeowners and businesses,” said John Konior, assistant city manager in Urbandale. He is overseeing the grant application.
“This would provide for major revitalization of neighborhoods and businesses; create new energy service, home improvement, construction and related service jobs; and provide a model that could be continued after the 36-month grant period.”
The cities involved are Altoona, Ankeny, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Johnston, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines and Windsor Heights.
The grant is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy under the economic stimulus passed early this year. Konior said the cities should hear back in late February or early March.
Local schools and colleges would train contractors, and private lenders would provide additional financing. Retrofitting homes can reduce energy use by up to 40 percent, according to a report from the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
President Barack Obama told business and labor leaders at a jobs summit last week that he strongly supports job-creation efforts that would bring more energy efficiency to homes and buildings. Obama said incentives like those used for “cash for clunkers” – the program intended to help people purchase more-fuel-efficient cars – could “get contractors working again and generate more private activity.”
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie attended the jobs summit. He urged Obama to make more direct federal funding available to metropolitan areas and encourage private lending to add environmentally friendly, or “green,” jobs.
“We need to create value in our cities and programs geared toward energy efficiency to instill that value. It saves energy, it saves the environment, it improves public health and it creates new jobs,” he said. “We also need to sell the benefit and show the benefit to the private sector so there’s long-term, lasting benefit.”
Global leaders have gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the two-week U.N. Climate Change Conference, which began Monday. The White House announced last month that Obama plans to offer to cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
Konior and other metro-area leaders say efforts to limit global warming need to happen at the local level.
“Wind farms are great, but the bigger payoff is energy efficiency,” said David Osterberg, director of the Iowa Policy Project, a nonprofit founded in 2001 that produces research on the Iowa economy and energy and environmental policy “Every bit of this will be lasting, because 36 months down the road your energy bill will still be lower and MidAmerican will still be using less coal. And with 10 cities participating, that will have a significant impact that can be measured. This is the smart part of the stimulus program. It provides jobs that moves us to a different kind of country.”
Full story Here
