Oregon Ranks #4 In State Energy Efficiency.

Key findings from Oct 2011 scorecard are HERE ; Oregon detail is HERE.

Scorecard is based on assessment of state policies:

The Scorecard examines six state energy efficiency policy areas and presents these results in six chapters: (1) utility and public benefits programs and policies; (2) transportation policies; (3) building energy codes; (4) combined heat and power; (5) state government initiatives; and (6) appliance efficiency standards. States can earn up to 50 possible points in these six policy areas combined, with the maximum possible points in each area weighted by the magnitude of its potential energy savings impact.

 Map HERE, and pasted below, shows all state rankings.

Click to Enlarge

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Estacada Elderly 202 Project Gets $1 Million for Green Retrofit.

Estacada News story about Volunteers of American 66 unit Whispering Pines project is HERE. Story says two other Oregon projects receive funding under same program:

REACH Community Development received $258,426 for the Powell Boulevard Apartments in Portland, and the Salem Housing Authority secured a $730,092 grant for the Englewood East complex.

HUD website with more information about this program is HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

LA Housing Authority Testing Chinese Plug in Hybrids.

From Green Car Congress HERE.

Question: Anyone know if any OREGON housing authorities OR housing non profits are in line to test any plug in electrics? 

If so email me or add a comment below with details.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Moisture Testing and Building Envelope Standards Part of Oregon House Legislative Hearing.

Not clear if this is just SF or whether it includes MF.

House Consumer Protection and Government Accountability Committee, Thursday-September 23, 1 PM, Hearing Room E.

Agenda includes:

Moisture Testing Requirements for New Residential Structures

-Pat Allen, Department of Consumer & Business Services

-Scott Barrie, Oregon Homebuilders Association

Building Envelope Warranties

-Craig Smith, Construction Contractors Board

-Jon Chandler, Oregon Homebuilders Association

Committee agendas are HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Consumer Law Group Report Says HUD Could Save $1 Billion Annually on Rental Assistance with Energy Conservation.

National Consumer Law Center report is HERE.

Report says 7 "free" ways to achieve savings are:

1. Tapping more effectively into the estimated
$4.5 billion utility companies and
energy efficiency program administrators
spend each year on energy efficiency so
that a proportionate share of the funding
reaches low-income, multifamily housing;
2. Providing ongoing support to subsidized
housing owners that will allow them to
coordinate better with the existing lowincome
Weatherization Assistance Program
(“WAP”) which pays for insulation
and other energy-efficiency related investments
in low-income housing;
3. Better coordination between WAP and
HUD’s Community Development Block
Grant (“CDBG”) program so that energy
efficiency investments can be more easily
piggy-backed on work already being done
on the home through CDBG;
4. Providing assistance to smaller housing
authorities so they can utilize “energy
performance contracts” that are now
almost exclusively used by large, wellstaffed
housing authorities to improve
their energy efficiency;
5. Facilitating greater use of energy efficient
“utility allowances,” thereby providing
better incentives for housing authorities
and private, subsidized owners to invest
in energy efficiency;
6. Collecting much better data on energy
usage in HUD-subsidized housing; and
7. Setting and attaining energy savings
targets for HUD’s housing stock, as
Congress has mandated. A 20% savings
goal, which could be met over the next
decade, would save $1 billion and more
annually.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

IG Recovery Act Weatherization Program Report Says 5% of Planned Units Have Been Completed.

Report is HERE.

For Oregon the report says that 191 of 4,635 planned units (4.12%) have been reported as completed as of mid February 2010. That is slightly below the national average of 5.17%. (In both cases, %'s are of 3 year goals).

Originally posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

DOE Finally Publishes (In a Non Useful Format) Lists of MF Properties Whose Tenants Meet Weatherization Funding Eligibility Requirements.

A week past the effective date of new rules, the US Department of Energy has finally published listings of Multifamily HUD, RD, or LIHTC buildings that meet some of the automatic tenant eligibility requirements for Weatherization funding. (See my earlier post HERE for the new rules).

The DOE page with qualified MF listings can be found HERE. (I tried to extract Oregon only properties from the Excel listings available on this page, however it appears that DOE has password protected these files so that it is not possible to simply filter/extract state listings. Sigh...)

I ALSO recommend looking at the excellent National Housing Trust web summary of the DOE rules HERE, this document includes a table explaining how the complicated weatherization rules apply to different HUD, Rural Development and LIHTC programs.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD-Energy Department Kumbaya: DOE Simplifies MF Qualification for Weatherization Funding.

Courtesy of Novogradac:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released a final rule, which is effective February 24, 2010, will reduce the procedural burdens on evaluating applications from buildings that are part of these programs. amending the eligibility provisions applicable to multi-unit buildings under the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Under the final rule, if a multi-unit building is under an assisted or public housing program and is identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), participates in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program, or includes units that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service's Multifamily Housing Programs, and is included on a list published by DOE, that building will meet certain WAP eligibility requirements without the need for further evaluation or verification.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Green Jobs Recovery Retrofit Recommendations from VP Biden Workgroup.

News story HERE incudes link to report.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Study: Cap and Dividend Helps Lower Income Families More than Cap and Trade.

Story in NLIHC Memo to Members story HERE provides a summary and link to a new study says that a a "Cap and Dividend" carbon emissions control policy would better help low income families than a "Cap and Trade" policy.

Study summary from NLIHC story:

.."They split the population into 10 income deciles and find that carbon emissions per capita in the highest income decile are more than 6 times greater than in the lowest decile; however, as a share of their income, carbon per dollar of expenditure is more than twice as high in the poorest decile as in the richest. This means that while lower income households have a much smaller carbon footprint than higher-income households, they would be paying a larger share of their income on increased energy costs

The next step in finding the net impact on households is to observe how the revenues from the permit auctions are redistributed. The authors analyze how households would be affected if 80% of the revenue were returned to the households as dividends (the other 20% could be spent on transitional assistance to communities, workers, or firms that would be adversely affected by decreasing reliance on fossil fuels). They find that the average annual cost of carbon to consumers for higher fossil fuel prices ranges from $135 per person in the lowest income decile to $618 per person in the highest-income decile.

If each household were to receive an equal dividend of $386, then the bottom seven deciles would all receive more in dividends than they pay in higher prices, the eight decile breaks even, and the top two deciles experience a net cost. As a percentage of income, this is a 6.5% gain for people in the lowest decile and a 0.3% loss for people in the highest decile, turning this into a progressive climate change policy."

Updated-Off Topic: NW Companies Get $21 Million Recovery Jolt for Albany Battery Electrode Facility.

Update: More related projects were funded today as per Oregonian HERE.
------

Couldn't resist the cheezy headline.

From company press release:

EnerG2, a Seattle based company focused on introducing advanced nano-structured materials for next- generation energy storage breakthroughs, today announced that the United States Department of Energy has awarded the company $21.3 million in Federal stimulus funds allocated for makers of advanced automotive batteries and energy storage technologies.

The funds will be used to help build the first facility in the world dedicated to the commercial-scale production of nano-engineered synthetic high-performance carbon electrode material. This material is the most important ingredient in ultracapacitor energy storage devices, which are used in electric and hybrid vehicles.

EnerG2 will partner with Oregon Freeze Dry, a current manufacturing partner, in the construction of the facility in Albany, Oregon. OFD will bring deep experience and expertise to the project and will help accelerate the benefits that the plant will bring to the automotive industry.

HUD-Energy Recovery Act Kumbaya.

White house press release is HERE.

Likely related to previously delayed HUD Assisted Housing Stability and Energy and Green Retrofit Investments Stimulus Program (page says Notice to be issued shortly)

Recovery Act Weatherization Plan Hearing Scheduled for Thursday April 2 in Salem.

Oregon Housing and Community Services is holding a public hearing on their proposed Recovery Act Weatherization Assistance Program State Plan for 2009-12.

The notice of the hearing is HERE.

The DRAFT Oregon plan is HERE. (PDF page 6 of the plan shows a budget of $38.5 Million; page 39 in the PDF contains eligibility information related to multifamily weatherization).

A separate DOE Recovery Act press release HERE indicates that there is an additional $42.2 million being made available to Oregon for the "State Energy Program" for a total of $80.7 million for Oregon.

The DOE press release for Oregon goes on to say:
" The Weatherization Assistance Program will allow an average investment of up to $6,500 per home in energy efficiency upgrades and will be available for families making up to 200% of the federal poverty level – or about $44,000 a year for a family of four.

The State Energy Program funding will be available for rebates to consumers for home energy audits or other energy saving improvements; development of renewable energy projects for clean electricity generation and alternative fuels; promotion of Energy Star products; efficiency upgrades for state and local government buildings; and other innovative state efforts to help save families money on their energy bill"

HUD Secretary at NACO Legislative Conference: Sims to Head New Sustainable Communities Office.

From National Association of Counties website HERE

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan
"Donovan promised HUD would be a new partner with counties. “You have my commitment to a new HUD as a new partner.” He urged counties to be sure that the new money in the stimulus package is spent quickly and wisely, and suggested that in the long-term, "we must not only look at home ownership, but must also make rental housing a real viable alternative." Another long term HUD focus will be to help build sustainable communities. He announced the formation of the Office for Sustainable Communities, which he expects to be headed by former King County, Wash. Executive Ron Sims."

Cap and Trade: How Much [Tax] Will be Paid Will Vary by State.

WSJ had interesting recent editorial saying that cap and trade impacts would vary by geography in some unexpected ways, with coasts having lowest potential tax cost. (General idea is that states with low per capita emissions would have less tax to pay than do states with high per capita emissions). (Editorial cites Climate Analysis Indicators HERE).

WSJ editorial is HERE. Graphic to left highlights WSJ view of low and high per capita emittters.

I don't know much about cap and trade, or accuracy of these projections. If anyone else knows more, feel free to add comment.

Cap/Trade Will Increase Share of Income Spent on Energy by 5% For Poorest 20% of HH's; Use Rebates, Not Utilities, to Deliver Subsidy.

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities paper is HERE.

Says that average energy cost increase for bottom 20% of households (average income, $15,000) will average $750 per year. That means 5% more of household income would go toward energy costs with a cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gases by 15%.

Paper goes on to argue that energy companies are not best way to allocate subsidies to reduce cost impacts on lower income households and instead recommends use of a rebate mechanism described in separate paper HERE.

(Hat tip to NLIHC Memo to Members for link to paper).