We've seen reports of massive overspending and disorganization from the Obama administration's stimulus-funded weatherization program in New Jersey and New Hampshire. There have also been reports that "weatherizing" your home could pose health risks.
Now, more bad news for the weatherization crowd (led by Vice-Preside Joe Biden), this time from Seattle:
Retrofits glowed with promise to boost the economy, reduce consumer bills and lower greenhouse gas emissions."Triple win," huh? Not so much:
"A triple win," is how Biden characterized it.
Source: KOMONews.com
Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare.This is what happens when bureaucrats implement a big spending program - lots of spending, lots of meetings, lots of bureaucracy.
McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods.
But more than a year later, Seattle's numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program. Many of the jobs are administrative, and not the entry-level pathways once dreamed of for low-income workers. Some people wonder if the original goals are now achievable.
"The jobs haven't surfaced yet," said Michael Woo, director of Got Green, a Seattle community organizing group focused on the environment and social justice.
"It's been a very slow and tedious process. It's almost painful, the number of meetings people have gone to. Those are the people who got jobs. There's been no real investment for the broader public."
Source: KOMONews.com
A triple win, you might say.
