Green jobs? Nope. But it’s not all Obama’s fault.

Darren Sameulsohn has penned article over at Politico that seems to suggest that Obama's green energy and green jobs campaigns have been little more than prattle and empty promises.  To a large extent, I agree with that sentiment.  However, as someone who's carefully watched the entire process, I can tell you that it's not entirely Obama's fault.  

Say what you want about whether or not the government can or cannot create jobs, I don't care.  Fact is, we never got the chance to find out.  The partisan bickering and spoiled-brat politics got in the way of Obama even having a chance to make the vision a reality, or a complete bust.

Add to that the sheer magnitude of the undertaking, and the time required to get it moving, and you've got a political thorn in your paw.

Perhaps it was foolish of Obama to make such grand promises back when he was just a babe in the woods, in presidential terms.  And I have to admit that I haven't always been kind to his efforts.  But, he got a lot of people, myself included, all heated up about the possibility of a green economy and a whole bucket-load of green jobs.

Unfortunately, the jobs didn't come.  Now, all we're left with is bloated government weatherization programs (I worked closely with one, trying to "trim the fat", only to discover that it was all fat, all the time.) and feelsy-goody nonprofits.

As I understand it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is conducting an audit to determine just how many green jobs have been created.  And it's likely to be just another sharp stick in the eye.

Read the article here:  http://politi.co/lV8GOz

Are you clueless about energy efficiency?

The Consumer Electronics Association seems to think so.  Their white paper, which can be had here for a mere $999, suggests that you people don't get it.  Of course, I didn't buy the white paper, either.  I read about it at Forbes.com.  And you can, too.  Scroll down to the bottom to read Conservation Pros official statement on the subject, in the comment section. 

Those of you who aren't going to click through can read the statement right here:

"Energy management programs are all well and good. And they certainly have a place in the greater strategy for the reduction of energy consumption. However, our primary strategy should be stemming the waste in our existing homes.

According to the EPA, 10% of our annual energy expenses are wasted through the building envelope. Given that the residential sector in the US, in 2005, consumed 10.55 quadrillion BTU’s of energy, that means a potential savings of 1.05 quadrillion BTU’s. Imagine a pile of coal that’s 10 feet thick, one mile wide and about 3.3 miles long. That’s one quad. Wasted. Every year. And rising…

Obama had it right with the Home Star package but no one in DC had the fortitude to make it fly.

Air-sealing and insulating every home in the US is where the rubber meets the road, folks. Energy management is like trying to stop a spurting artery with a butterfly band-aid."

So what if you didn’t make the improvements, claim the tax credit anyway!

Apparently, the IRS has no way to properly police the Energy Efficiency Tax Credits.  According to an article in Bloomberg, "Auditors sampled 150 tax returns and found no record of homeownership associated with 30 percent of that group. The auditors also found instances in which prisoners or people too young to purchase a house were claiming the credits."

I'm not actually suggesting, of course, that you should bilk the government.  I just thought it was a catchy enough title to get your attention.

Read the rest of the article here.

Solar Energy Headed Behind the Woodshed

So the Obama administration did its best to get incentives for energy efficiency but failed miserably.  Now, support for solar energy and other forms of alternative energy is also in jeopardy.  

Apparently, venture capitalists are running scared from all things solar.  Why?  It's a business model that's entirely propped up by federal dollars.  Were it not for the incentives, there would be no solar industry in this country.

Alternative energy firms have been the darlings of silicon valley for the last few years, based on promises made by Obama to create a "green economy".  VC's are now worried that, with the efforts to cut the budget deficit consuming DC, the fed may not make good on financial promises it's made in the past, or will make in the future.

In the 70's, solar was the promise of the future, Carter installed solar panels on the white house and electric cars were going to save the world.  Does any of this look familiar to you, dear reader?  It looks like we might be headed down that road all over again.

A friend of mine said, just the other day, "History repeats itself.  It has to.  No one is listening." 

Unless something monumental shakes loose here, we're going right back to the Reagan years, folks.  

It's been fun.

This post was inspired by a fantastic article by Tim Mullany with the humble title "ECO WEAK-O", the full text of which can be read at this link.

Maybe Insulation Isn’t So Sexy After All

I wrote a post in August of 2010, with the title “Is HomeStar DEAD? Quite Possibly”. Since then, it's been one of the most popular posts on my site. (Maybe that's because it's #2 on the Google page for that search term… link)

Now we're halfway into 2011 and nothing has changed. It appears that, yes, HomeStar is long dead, with no chance of recovery. If you'll recall, at the time Harry Reid was preparing to bring it to the Senate floor, even with a majority in both houses of Congress, there were only thirty three senators who had committed to signing the HomeStar bill. The likelihood of it resurfacing, in this deadlocked administration, is paltry at best.

Heck, when's the last time you heard Obama say "Insulation is Sexy"?

I've got to say, I find that phenomenally disappointing. I'm all for solar and other alternative sources of energy. BUT, energy efficiency is the key to reducing energy consumption in the US and the rest of the world.

What's the point of installing a $40K photo-voltaic solar array on a home that wastes 30% of its energy?  The thing that's needed is for the players in national politics to get behind a comprehensive incentive package for residential energy efficiency that's equal to, or even better than, those for solar and other renewables.

There are still quite a few optimists out there. And God love 'em for it. We need unbridled optimism in order to swing the balance away from cynics like me. But if you're counting on the Fed to provide incentives for energy efficiency, home energy retrofits, and general reduction in the power demands of residential housing, you might be waiting a loooong time.   

Cash for Caulkers?  How about "Clunker for Caulkers"?

Is Home Star DEAD? Quite possibly.

In what’s being described as a "punt" in the national press, the Spill Bill has been pulled from the floor of the Senate.  And, with it, Home Star.

From Politico.com:

Senate Democrats on Tuesday punted their oil spill response bill to next month, but the extra time doesn’t guarantee the measure will pass — far from it.

The delay virtually ensures that strategists from both parties will use the congressional recess to hone their plans, talking points and poison-pill amendments for any floor debate, all with an eye toward the midterm elections.

Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to pull the plug on offshore drilling is the latest blow to Democratic efforts to move energy legislation, beginning with the deaths of a sweeping climate change bill and then a scaled-down renewable energy bill.

It initially appeared that the slender offshore drilling package was a must-pass bill with political momentum, but it became evident over the past week that the Nevada Democrat lacked the votes within his own caucus to force the issue as the Republicans held firm against it…

Read the full story here…

Let’s get HomeStar (Cash for Caulkers) through the senate!!!

The HOME STAR Program

Proposed national incentives for residential efficiency retrofits would address America’s urgent need for job creation in the troubled construction and manufacturing sectors

How You Can Help to Make HOME STAR a Reality (in only 15 minutes!)

1. JOIN THE HOME STAR COALITION: Click here to fill out a simple Web form and register your support.

2. EMAIL YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE: Click here, then enter your zip code to select your senators. Modify a standard template by adding details about your business. Hit submit!

3. CALL YOUR SENATORS: Start by downloading the HOME STAR Talking Points. Look up your Senators’ phone numbers on the Senate Web site. Take a moment to review the talking points to stay on message. When the attendant answers, tell them that you are a constituent and would like to discuss how the HOME STAR program is going to help you create jobs in their district. This will likely only take a few minutes per call (but if they want to discuss, talk about your business and happy clients in their home districts!).

4. SPREAD THE WORD: We need to show a ground swell of support. Call your friends, family, and co-workers. Forward this email, or send people a link to http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/home-star and ask them to voice their support.

What is HOME STAR?

HOME STAR is a proposed federal program that would provide direct incentives to American homeowners who invest in improving the energy efficiency of their homes. The basic structure of the HOME STAR program was developed by an ad hoc committee of private sector advisors, with strong participation by Efficiency First. Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr presented the program at a meeting of President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) on Nov. 2, 2009, and the plan is now under consideration by the White House. On January 27, 2010, during his State of the Union address, President Obama addressed the urgent need for a jobs bill stating:

We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.

As outlined in a memo that was formally endorsed by PERAB members on Dec. 4, HOME STAR would reimburse homeowners for residential energy upgrades such as air sealing, insulation, new light bulbs and new appliances. Homeowners would be eligible to receive up to $2,000 for implementing at least two upgrades from a list of qualifying measures, or up to $3,500 for at least four qualifying measures. Higher incentives would be available to homeowners who achieve energy savings of at least 20 percent. Weatherization projects that reduce energy consumption by 20 percent would be eligible to receive up to $4,000 in incentive money, plus $1,500 for every additional 5 percent reduction in energy consumption. TheTimes also notes that all HOME STAR incentives would be capped at 50 percent of project costs, and a percentage of projects would be audited to ensure that the improvements perform as expected.

Economic Benefits of HOME STAR

Unemployment nationwide now exceeds 10 percent, and the situation is particularly dire for the construction industry, which has lost 1.6 million jobs since December 2007. With unemployment in the construction sector at a shocking 17 percent and demand for new buildings in a tailspin, there is an urgent need to create new high-paying, long-term construction jobs that cannot be outsourced overseas. The HOME STAR program leverages private investment to create a strong market for home energy retrofits that would put hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans back to work and stimulate demand for building materials produced by American factories. A $23 billion investment in HOME STAR incentives would support 5.9 million residential energy retrofits and quickly create new local jobs in construction and related industries.

Lower Home Energy Bills and a Healthier Planet

HOME STAR would help Americans pay for cost-effective home improvements with the potential to deliver permanent reductions in household energy bills and significantly scale back our national carbon footprint. Residential energy efficiency improvements covered by the HOME STAR program can reduce energy waste in most homes by 20 to 40 percent, and when combined with low-interest financing, can be cash flow positive as soon as the project is completed. A nationwide initiative to improve the efficiency of America’s 128 million homes would unlock significant reductions in building-related greenhouse gas emissions and generate long-term energy savings for American consumers.

Government working on ‘Home Star’ plan for energy-efficiency rebates (aka “Cash for Caulkers”)

dhull@mercurynews.com

Hoping to capitalize on the success of the federal government’s Energy Star label for appliances, the White House and business officials are pushing a new program dubbed "Home Star," which would give property owners rebates and other incentives to weatherize their homes and make other improvements to cut their energy use. Home Star is expected to be part of a broad jobs bill Congress is preparing to unveil in the coming weeks.

Although details are still being hammered out, several players involved in drafting the Home Star legislation say the program falls into two main categories. Short-term upgrades like air-sealing, insulation, and furnace and water heater replacement would give homeowners $250 rebates for each new appliance installed. Longer-term projects that reduce a home’s energy use by 20 percent could see households earning a rebate of as much as $4,000.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, who serves on President Barack Obama’s board of outside economic advisers, is a leading champion for Home Star, which he describes as "Cash for Caulkers." The idea has widespread support from big-box retailers, labor unions, environmental groups and the construction and contracting industries, which have been devastated by the collapse of the housing market. Although national unemployment remains at about 10 percent, almost a quarter of the nation’s construction workers are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"We are in an urgent moment where we desperately need jobs," said Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and an architect of the Home Star legislation. "You have business and environmental interests aligned around making this happen, and happen now. I have never seen a coalition this broad and this committed."

Are WNC green jobs in the pipeline?

Asheville Citizen-Times, by Dale Neal 1/12/2010 

Photo by Erin Brethauer  (ebrethau@citizen-times.com)

ASHEVILLE — As the national and regional economies struggle through the worst downturn since the Great Depression, Western North Carolina hopes to see green jobs sprouting up in the coming year.

“There is a lot of promise, but the green jobs seem to be slow to take root,” said Carl Donovan of Conservation Pros, an Asheville-based company specializing in making homes more energy efficient.  “The business is certainly picking up, but I don’t see the jobs yet.”

That could change soon.

The federal stimulus package could provide $4.2 million to weatherize homes in four local counties over the next two years.

Another $1 million in stimulus has been awarded to Asheville and Buncombe County for weatherization and other energy efficiency efforts, but that money has yet to be spent as federal guidelines were worked out, said Maggie Ullman, the city’s energy coordinator.

In addition to weatherization, the region also hopes to build on strengths in solar energy and biofuels. The result could be the creation of more jobs in a much-touted but so far relatively small sector of the local economy.

A place to start

Western North Carolina has seen brutal declines in the number of manufacturing jobs since the 1990s, and that drop has continued during the current recession. The number of manufacturing jobs in the Asheville metropolitan statistical area — Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties — dropped from 20,600 in January 2008 to 18,000 in October, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

And that’s just part of the region’s struggling employment situation. In November, the unemployment rate for the Asheville MSA was 8.6 percent, which meant that nearly 18,000 people were actively looking for jobs.

“I don’t know that we can say that green is the magic solution to bring back those jobs,” said Matt Raker, the new senior director of AdvantageGreen, an initiative to promote green industry from economic development group AdvantageWest. “But we do have a lot of opportunity to bring solar panel manufacturing and other components here.”

AdvantageWest sees potential in the Asheville area not only in local solar companies, but also in biofuel and weatherization. There’s also a potential workforce developing through Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, which offers courses in green jobs. 

The first step, though, is deciding which jobs count as green.

“A green job doesn’t mean we go out and hug trees every day,” Donovan said. As for the weatherization work his company does, Donovan said, “It’s hard work. It’s filthy stripping out old insulation from houses. It’s like any other construction job.”

Depending on which study you pay attention to, North Carolina already has somewhere between 6,500 and 63,000 green jobs, Raker said.

The North Carolina Employment Security Commission has gotten $1 million in grants to inventory the number of green jobs statewide. Similar efforts are under way locally through Land of Sky Regional Council, another regional economic development group.

Success to date

WNC can point to progress in the past year. FLS Energy, for example, has grown from three employees to 45, providing solar hot water systems for area businesses and hotels. FLS is also working on a solar farm on the old Canton landfill, which will generate enough electricity for about 1,100 homes.

Sundance Power Systems, based in Weaverville, saw a 50 percent increase in business with solar photovoltaic systems as well as wind turbines, said company founder Dave Hollister. Sundance hired about eight more full-time workers, boosting the staff to about 30.

“And I’d say we put about 50 to 60 people to work this year, when you count the electrical contractors and engineers and others,” Hollister said.

As the company begins to work on projects that will use federal stimulus money in 2010, Hollister expects that trend to continue. “This is a whole industry that we’re trying to create,” he said.

The year ahead

The $4.2 million in stimulus money will be used to weatherize homes in Buncombe, Madison, Transylvania and Henderson counties.

Community Action Opportunities, the local nonprofit that administers federal weatherization funds, will coordinate efforts to update homes with insulation, more efficient furnaces and other upgrades.

The group generally takes applications from elderly and disabled residents and families who make up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 a year for an individual or $33,000 for a family of four.

In addition, the city of Asheville has received $804,700 from an Energy Efficiency Conservation block grant, to be spent in the next year, Ullman said. Buncombe County received about $124,000 in stimulus money for energy efficiency.

Under federal guidelines, that money could generate 15 or so new jobs. Local officials and people in the industry hope that’s just the start.

In the coming year, Raker sees the potential for a few hundred green jobs in weatherization, solar and wind power and other energy efficiency sectors across North Carolina’s 23 western counties.

Weatherization efforts financed with federal stimulus funds are still expected to pump new energy into the economy in 2010 while saving energy costs for a number of residents.

Community Action Opportunities has already completed 50 homes this year, with 83 in progress and 250 more on the list, said Ben Watts, the nonprofit’s director of economic development.

By the end of next year, 459 homes could be weatherized in Buncombe, Madison, Henderson and Transylvania counties, up from the 100 or so the nonprofit typically renovates in most years, Watts said.

“We’ve added about 12 jobs and there are more to come,” Watts said. “We’re also contracting with more electricians and plumbers, and buying Energy-Star appliances at the local Home Depot, Lowe’s and Sears — so all that money trickles into the economy.”

Opportunities await, but more action is needed on jobs front

Editorial from From The Asheville Citizen-Times January 12th, 2010, Featuring Conservation Pros’ founder, Carl Donovan

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics put out employment numbers for December, and they were encouraging only in that they weren’t as disastrous as previous numbers. Nationwide unemployment remained unchanged at 10 percent, but the economy shed another 85,000 jobs.

Locally, unemployment in the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area (which includes Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties) wasn’t as bad, but still discouraging at 8.6 percent in November.

It’s painfully obvious our society can’t function without jobs, but the question is what should be done? Today we’ll look at two initiatives: The stimulus push and the effort to grow “green” jobs in Asheville. The stimulus push seems like a good idea.The nation’s infrastructure has been neglected for years, and work is needed on water, highway, rail projects, etc. Addressing that need while spurring employment is a fit that makes sense. However, an Associated Press analysis released this week showed transportation stimulus spending was, at least to date, barely affecting local unemployment rates. To quote AP, the “analysis found there was nearly no connection between stimulus money and the number of construction workers hired or fired since Congress passed the recovery program. The effect was so small, one economist compared it to trying to move the Empire State Building by pushing against it.”

Should the stimulus idea be abandoned? Not necessarily. Should it be targeted better? Absolutely. In August this newspaper reported WNC was getting short shrift when it comes to stimulus dollars For example, McDowell County, with a 16.1 percent unemployment rate, received zero stimulus dollars for highway projects and ranked 92nd out of the state’s 100 counties in overall funding per resident. Leaders from U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, to Gov. Beverly Perdue to newly-minted state Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, have to make sure numbers like that are turned around.

Green jobs is another push that makes sense, especially here in Asheville. That’s not simply because Asheville is more environmentally aware than other communities, but because of the environment-related ventures already here: The Climatic Data Center, NOAA, RENCI, solar power ventures, the N.C. Arboretum and much more. Those entities do offer jobs, but the hope here is that some promising shoots in related fields, from alternative energy to energy conservation, will yield fruit on the employment front.

So far, the results have been elusive. Carl Donovan of Conservation Pros of Asheville, which specializes in energy efficiency and weatherizing homes, said, “There is a lot of promise, but the green jobs seem to be slow to take root. The business is certainly picking up, but I don’t see the jobs yet.”

Matt Raker of AdvantageGreen, an offshoot of the venerable AdvantageWest economic development agency, said estimates on the number of new green jobs ahead for North Carolina range from 6,500 to more than 60,000.

Raker said, “I don’t know that we can say that green is the magic solution to bring back … jobs, but we do have a lot of opportunity to bring solar panel manufacturing and other components here.”

He’s right. There isn’t a magic solution, a single silver bullet, out there to solve the jobs crisis. We need not a single bullet, but a bandolier full of them. The green jobs field is a developing industry, and it would be wise to be in on the ground floor. Initiatives like the stimulus package, done right, can provide other jobs and tie in with the green push.

WNC has to get its fair share of stimulus funds, federal funds and attention from Raleigh. We need to protect existing jobs and develop new opportunities such as those on the green front.

Leaders in government and the business community have to realize we’re on the clock and be nimble in embracing new strategies to create new jobs. 

Above all, we need action. Now.