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Stimulus Plan

Services

  

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Assistance

The federal stimulus plan provides millions of dollars for local governments to invest in energy efficiency and conservation within their jurisdiction – an unprecedented opportunity to create local jobs aimed at reducing their community’s utility bills. The primary funding vehicle for cities and counties are the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds which are dispersed directly to cities and counties of a certain size or through the State Energy office for smaller jurisdictions. In order to receive these funds, jurisdictions must fill out the EECBG application and provide a detailed Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (EECS).

Regardless of your city or county’s size or how far along in the application process you are, ConSol is able to provide an array of services to help.

ConSol Services

  • EECBG Application Assistance (including budget) - Deadline – June 25
  • EECS (including AB32 carbon assessment) - Due with application or 120 days after award
  • Program Advancing Community Efficiency (PACE) – A comprehensive carbon inventory and aggressive home retrofit program
  • Creation of an energy efficiency financing mechanism
  • Competitive bid assistance for projects applying for other federal funds

EECBG Application Assistance

ConSol has researched the application process thoroughly and can assist your jurisdiction as it prepares its submittal, in some cases without any out-of-pocket cost. For many entities, the most difficult portion of the application process is determining what programs to include. ConSol can assist in a preliminary evaluation of what programs will have the greatest benefit as well as suggest programs that are “plug and play” and would be easy to implement and result in significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy

Your city must complete an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy in order to qualify for the EECBG funds. The strategy document can be submitted with the application; however, jurisdictions also have the option of using some of their Block Grant Funding to generate the EECS. This process needs to be completed within 120 days of the initial application’s approval. Jurisdiction can receive up to a maximum of $250,000 to assist with this process. Some of this money can cover ConSol consulting services that will provide your jurisdiction the energy consumption and savings data, along with job forecasts and implementation strategies that will be the backbone of the EECS.

Program Advancing Community Efficiency (PACE)

ConSol’s has developed a turn-key community-based program that enables jurisdictions to meet their energy and climate protection goals. Specific energy efficiency packages are based on an entire community assessment. By leveraging the scale of the program, we can reduce costs and get additional financial support to provide low, fixed pricing for predetermined Good, Better, Best retrofit packages. We will recruit and train local workers, create a sales and marketing plan, seek financing, and measure the progress. The homeowner sees a positive cash flow from day one. Local jobs are created (one local job for every 16.6 homes retrofitted), a significant reduction in greenhouse gases can be tracked, and the program can be sustainable after the stimulus money dissipates. A portion of ConSol’s assistance to jurisdictions will be subsidized through an existing contract that ConSol has with the Department of Energy.

Building America Funding

As a Department of Energy (DOE) Building America partner, ConSol will have some funding to help create home retrofit programs. ConSol has created the Program Advancing Energy Efficiency (PACE), which can provide the backbone for your jurisdiction’s EECGB application and your Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. PACE could also be submitted by jurisdictions seeking to apply for competitive funding awards.

AB 32 and Climate Action Plans

The California Office of the Attorney General has published a list of suggested mitigation measures for local government to follow to address greenhouse gas emissions in their general plan updates. Their recommended approach is the creation of a Climate Action Plan including the following elements: an emission inventory (to assist in developing appropriate emission targets and mitigation measures); emission targets that apply at reasonable intervals through the life of the plan; enforceable GHG control measures; monitoring and reporting (to ensure that targets are met); and mechanisms to allow for the revision of the plan, if necessary, to stay on target. ConSol is currently assisting multiple jurisdictions navigate this process, and can help you develop this plan in conjunction with or independently from your EECS.

Related Web Sites

California
http://www.energy.ca.gov/recovery/
http://www.recovery.ca.gov/

In general
http://usmayors.org/climateprotection/documents/eecbghandout.pdf
http://www.eere.energy.gov/recovery/
http://www.management.energy.gov/policy_guidance/1672.htm
www.Recovery.org