Excellent news from Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and the entire Democratic team in Washington, DC (sadly, not much thanks to Republicans except for a few like Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter).
Virginia will receive $164 million to help make its homes and offices energy efficient, Senators Warner and Webb announced today. The money is part of a nationwide investment of $8 billion allocated by the Department of Energy from the economic recovery package.
Here is the breakdown of Virginia's money:
* Up to $94 million will be made available to Virginia's local governments, community organizations, and non-profits for initiatives that will make it easier for families to weatherize their homes -- which will spur a new home energy efficiency industry that could create thousands of new jobs.
* $70 million will be made available to the state government for Virginia's state energy program, which will distribute money to various programs designed to cut energy consumption and improve energy efficiency.
Keep in mind that energy efficiency is by far and away the "lowest of low-hanging fruit" when it comes to addressing our energy and environment challenges. I particularly like
Amory Lovins' concept of "negawatts" - the watt of electricity that's never created in the first place is a lot cheaper than the one that was. In other words, instead of building "megawatts" for Virginia, let's start by first exhausting the vast potential of "negawatts." In addition to pouring money into energy efficiency, per Mark Warner's announcement above, let's "decouple" Dominion Power, institute net metering and a smart grid, and basically move out of the 19th and into the 21st century. Last I checked, we ARE in the 21st century after all. :)
