Buildings Benefit from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes $16.8 billion for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The funding is a nearly tenfold increase for EERE, which received just $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2008.
February 19, 2009
Federal buildings and fleets will become greener under a measure of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that became law earlier this week.
The economic stimulus act provides $4.5 billion to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to convert federal buildings into high-performance green buildings, which generally combine energy efficiency and renewable energy production to minimize the energy use of the buildings. The act also directs $4 million toward the establishment of an Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings within the GSA.
The act also stipulates that $5 billion will go towards the Weatherization Assistance Program, and increases the eligible income level under the program, increases the funding assistance level to $6,500 per home, and allows new weatherization assistance for homes that were weatherized as recently as 1994.
A complementary measure in the act provides $4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to rehabilitate and retrofit public housing, including increasing the energy efficiency of units, plus an additional $510 million to do the same for homes maintained by Native American housing programs. HUD will receive an additional $250 million to increase the energy efficiency of HUD-sponsored, low-income housing.
(Thanks to the DOE for proving information for this article)