ENERGIZE Clinton County

As many of our followers remember ECC has, for several months, been pursuing stimulus funds to use a large-scale weatherization program as a means to spur job creation and energy-savings for Clinton Countians. With the loss of DHL, and the subsequent layoffs, our focused advocate for a broad expansion of the state’s weatherization program HWAP (Home Weatherization Assistance Program) to reflect the drastic shift in local income levels and stimulate economic activity. With help from our supporters we sent nearly 1100 petition signatures to Governor Strickland’s office, along with letters from our County Commissioners, the City of Wilmington, and the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission supporting the Weatherize Clinton County initiative.

We feel as strongly today as ever that investing in energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to create and retain local jobs, stimulate economic development, and provide households with much needed savings. A lot has happened with the stimulus since our original weatherization push in February, and as info about funding and priorities have been released, we’ve continued our efforts to obtain stimulus funding to support energy efficiency in Clinton County.

First a quick stimulus recap. This spring, the Ohio Home Weatherization Assistance Program received a monumental increase, and is set to receive $266 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy over the next two years. Although details are still being released, we are very excited to learn that Clinton County & Clark Counties (which share an HWAP provider) are set to receive more than $3.5 million in weatherization funding, an absolutly astounding increase.

The increase in funding was accompanied by an increase in the income level for qualifying for the HWAP program to 200% of the poverty line. While we appreciate this increase, it brings with it the same limitations that we discussed in February. Weatherization programs have been shown to produce significant economic stimulus, not only because of the job creation, but also because of the increased spending on goods and services derived from energy savings. The immediate boost in spending produced by energy savings means the local economy receives additional stimulus with every home that is retrofitted. Yet, even with the increase in HWAP funding, many homes which are ready to be weatherized will not qualify for the program, and the potential stimulus from their energy savings missed.

As it became clear that more stimulus funding would become available for energy efficiency programs, we went back to the drawing board to develop a new approach to promoting energy efficiency to those households that don’t qualify for the HWAP program. In evaluating this goal, we considered the barriers that currently prevent middle and high-income home owners from investing in energy efficiency retrofits. We identified two key barriers: (1) the energy audit, which many homeowners do not understand and do not prioritize and (2) access to financing.

To address these two barriers, ECC partnered with the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission to develop the Local Energy Advancement Program (LEAP) which was submitted for stimulus funding last week. As opposed to HWAP–which provides need-based weatherization services–LEAP seeks to create direct and indirect economic activity by stimulating private investment in energy efficiency retrofits.

To accomplish the goal, LEAP will provide free HERS energy audits to qualifying households in Clinton County. The HERS audit is a national standard for energy audits which provides homeowners with a line-by-line cost benefit analysis for a broad range of retrofit measures. Once the homeowner has identified the investments “that make sense”, the LEAP program will connect the homeowner with financing opportunities from participating banks and contractors certified in performing the energy retrofits. By focusing the program on the energy audits,  supplemented by community education and outreach, LEAP offers a very low cost, scalable model for stimulating investment in energy efficiency retrofits on a community scale.

By leveraging public funds to stimulate private investment, we believe that LEAP serves as an ideal model for local economic stimulus. As we have discussed in the past, this type of energy efficiency program will provide an opportunity to train and hire local energy auditors, put local contractors to work, and source materials from local businesses. The significant multiplier effect of the program will generate increases in income, sales, and propery taxes, providing much needed relief to our local city and county governments. Furthermore, it is our hope that LEAP will produce a very important added benefit by raising the community’s knowledge of energy usage and waste while increasing awareness of the important role energy efficiency plays in building a sustainable local economy.

Read the full LEAP program here