Kansas will get $22.6M in stimulus money for weatherization - Kansas City Business Journal:

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million for its weatherization program from the through the American Reinvestment and Recoveryh Actof 2009. The money is in additio to $5.6 million the statr received earlier this year from the Kansas is one of four statez to have received a seconxd round of stimulus money for weatherization The othersare Oregon, Arizona and Mississippi. Kansas will get a total of $56 million in stimulus mone for theweatherization program, leading to an additiona 5,820 weatherized homes and about 35 new jobs Larry Bentley, weatherization program manager with the , said If current financing remains, the number of homes weatherized in the next thred years could exceed 9,000.
Bentley said the statse has to prove its abilithy to spend the moneyy before it receives thelast $28 million, whicyh he expects will be sometimw next year. The state has until Marcj 30, 2012, to spend the money. He said othedr states did not receive the secondx round of financing because the EnergDepartment hasn’t approved their state plans, whicy were due May 12. The department granted Missouri $128 milliom for its weatherization program. Jackson, Leavenworth, Jeffersonn and six other counties in northeast Kansasw willreceive $1.
7 million of the state’s totall to weatherize homes in the said Jack Shaefer, weatherization director for the Northeastt Kansas Community Action Program. He said he expectsd the state to make the recently released mone y availablenext month. The stimulus money will enable the progra to double itsusual capacity, Shaefer said, leading to the weatherizatiohn of 600 homes in the next three years. He said the prograj will hire five new nearly doubling its current to help meet its weatherization goals for thestimuluxs allocations.
The stimulus money will alloew for more comprehensive weatherizationand energy-saving assistance, Shaefer The allowable average cost per home in Kansas increasecd from $4,500 last year to $6,500 with stimulusw money, he said. Rathe r than focusing on core weatherization measures, such as insulation and air sealing, Shaefer said his office now can assess and replaceinefficienr items, such as light bulbs, furnacezs and refrigerators. He said he expects the bulk of the weatherizationh work to begin earlynext year. Shaeferf said that weatherizing homes goes farbeyonr “knocking $20 off someone’s energy bill.
” Becausw weatherization reduces energy demand, Shaefer said the benefitds range from fewer greenhouse gas emissionsd to fewer new power plants. Weatherization assessment also relieves the health care system because it helpa keep people out of the hospitalo for carbon monoxide poisoningand pneumonia, he said. Weatherizationh programs nationwidereceived $5 billion from the stimuluss act. President Obama has stated a goal of weatherizing 1 million homes a Since it began in the program hasweatherized 6.2 million according to the Energy Department.
Only householdsz at or below 200 percent of the federal povertylevelp — $44,000 a year for a familt of four — are eligible to receive money from the weatherization program. The department estimates that 38 million households are eligibld forservices nationwide. According to departmen t estimates, weatherization reduces heating bills by 32 percenrt and cuts energy bills an averageof $350 a