For over three years Results Engineering helped build the OCEAN and OCEAN 2 systems which automate the Home Energy Assistance and Weatherization Programs for the State of Ohio.
Ohio No. 1 for Weatherization
Tally of 6,814 energy-saving projects for poor far outpaces all other states' use of stimulus
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 2:47 AM
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio leads the nation in spending stimulus money to weatherize houses for low-income residents, completing more than one in five of the projects reported nationally last year.
"Their numbers are great," said Cathy Zoi, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. "They have set the gold standard for weatherization."
Ohio completed 6,814 projects under the Home Weatherization Assistance Program from July 1 to Dec. 31, according to new data released by the Energy Department. The next closest state was Mississippi, with 1,472 projects.
Nationwide, 30,252 projects were completed.
The program provides insulation, weather sealing and furnace upgrades to save energy for homeowners who make as much as double the U.S. poverty rate, $44,100 for a family of four.
The Ohio Department of Development is spreading out $267 million in federal stimulus money among 58 agencies that provide the services across the state through spring 2011. It expects to reach 32,000 households.
Ohio had received $30 million for the program in 2008. It spent nearly $51 million in stimulus dollars through Dec. 31 last year, most of it in the last six months of the year.
Ohio got a jump on other states, Zoi said, because it already had a strong weatherization program.
Ohio also started doing projects almost immediately after it was given permission to do so on July 1, she said. Other states waited for federal officials to clarify prevailing-wage laws for weatherization workers, she said.
Ohio took the department's advice and started work immediately, planning to fix any wage problems once the federal guidance was approved.
"They quickly got into their (stimulus) money while other states just waited," she said.
Still, the U.S. Government Accountability Office and others have warned that Ohio's quick-moving program is open to "waste, fraud and abuse." Under federal rules, the state plans to inspect just 5 percent of the weatherization projects completed using the stimulus money.
But Zoi said she's not worried.
"There's nothing that indicates to me that there would be any cause for concern," she said.
Donald Skaggs, who helps oversee the weatherization program at the Ohio Department of Development, said the state was able to spend about 10 percent of the stimulus money starting last spring to begin training workers for the stepped-up program.
"We decided we couldn't wait until (the federal wage laws) were clarified," he said.
Once the government did clarify the prevailing-wage rules on Sept. 3, agencies had to pay workers additional money retroactively in some cases.
Depending on which county they work in, he said, weatherization workers are paid about $10 to $20 an hour. The program has created 997 jobs and now employs a total of 2,482.
Though Ohio is leading the program now, Zoi said she expects other states to catch up this spring.