Apollo Alliance: New Stimulus Data Shows Progress on Clean Energy Projects, Job Creation

SAN FRANCISCO-The federal government’s Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board released new data today on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) spending and job creation. It reported that $160 billion in federal grants and loans have been awarded nationally, resulting in the retention or creation of more than 640,329 jobs.

Stimulus grants, loans and tax credits are spurring clean energy innovation across the country. Tax credits are helping citizens make their homes more energy efficient, while funding mechanisms like Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants and the Weatherization Assistance Program are inspiring cities to develop new models for financing large-scale retrofit projects.

“The Recovery Act data confirms what we’ve been hearing from clean energy companies and green jobs advocates around the country,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance. “ARRA funding is helping clean energy companies reopen factories and rehire previously laid-off workers. It has led to the creation of innovative programs that are going to redAuce consumers’ energy bills as we approach winter, and create green jobs in areas like home weatherization and clean energy manufacturing.”

Earlier this month, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board announced that $16 billion in ARRA contracts had been awarded, resulting in the retention or creation of more than 30,000 jobs. Details about the new ARRA data can be found at www.recovery.gov/pages/home.aspx.

Following are examples of how ARRA funds have helped clean energy companies and workers, and created programs that will save consumers money:

• Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale, California-based company, announced that the largest weatherization agency in the United States, the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, is using the company’s super-insulating windows for the Illinois Home Weatherization Assistance Program. Because of ARRA funding for weatherization programs like the one in Illinois, as well as ARRA provisions to help consumers and businesses buy energy-efficient products, Serious Materials has seen increased demand for its super-insulating windows and commercial glass, which has enabled the company to purchase two factories that had previously been shut down - a former Kensington Windows manufacturing plant in Vandergrift, Penn., and the former Republic Windows and Doors manufacturing facility in Chicago, Ill. www.seriousmaterials.com
• Simonton Windows of Parkersburg, W.Va., announced in August that it had extended offers to rehire 402 seasonal and full-time workers - 263 in West Virginia and 139 in Illinois - who were laid off by the company last winter, and that it is set to hire 55 additional employees in the near future. The reason is the increased demand for energy-efficient windows from consumers who qualify for tax credits under ARRA to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. www.simonton.com
• The City of Portland, Ore., is using the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funds it received through ARRA as seed money to start Clean Energy Works Portland, a revolving loan fund that will enable Portland residents to improve the energy efficiency of their homes with no up-front costs and pay for the improvements through their utility bills. Improvements available to homeowners during the program’s pilot phase, which will cover 500 homes, include insulation, air sealing, duct sealing, and improvements to space and water heating systems. Fifty-five direct jobs will be created by the pilot program, with many more expected after the pilot phase. www.cleanenergyworksportland.org.
• In Kansas City, Mo., the city has created a 150-block “Green Impact Zone,” where targeted funds from ARRA could spur the renewal of a poor and abandoned area by putting residents to work weatherizing thousands of neighborhood homes. The Green Impact Zone has received ARRA funds through the Weatherization Assistance Program and the EPA’s brownfields clean-up program. Other components of the Green Impact Zone program include a rapid-transit bus route; a smart grid energy project; a green sewer demonstration project; a botanical garden; and a citizen engagement center that will serve as a one-stop shop for residents’ public safety issues. www.marc.org/greenimpactzone
• SunRise Solar of St. John, Ind., makes solar-powered attic fans, a technology that saves homeowners 30 percent on the cooling portion of their utility bills. Owner Bill Keith launched the business in 2003 out of his garage and is planning to open a second production facility next year. Sales have increased, in part, due to a 30 percent tax credit included in the Recovery Act for the purchase of energy efficiency products. Because Sunrise Solar uses local suppliers wherever possible, the company is creating jobs throughout the local economy. www.sunrisesolar.net

For more information about these companies or programs, either contact them directly or call Apollo’s communications director, Sam Haswell, at (415) 371-1700 x201. For more examples of clean energy success stories, visit the “Signature Stories” page at www.apolloalliance.org.

###

The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of unlikely and diverse interests - including labor, business, environmental, and community leaders - advancing a bold vision for the next American economy centered on clean energy and good jobs.