Senator Roland Burris Announces Recovery Act Funding to Chicago for Energy Efficiency Building Retrofits
$25 million for commercial and residential building retrofits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 21, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — United States Senator Roland W. Burris today announced that $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds from the Department of Energy will be awarded to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning for energy efficiency building retrofits.
The Chicago Region Retrofit Ramp-up (CR3) Program will establish a set of comprehensive initiatives that will facilitate the transition to an efficient building retrofit market in both the residential and commercial sectors. The program will include retrofits for commercial buildings in downtown Chicago, along with providing a range of financing and loan options for residential retrofits, including new market tax credits for multifamily housing units. The focus will be on reducing the costs of customer acquisition for contractors, expanding the available trained retrofit workforce through a worker training program to match workers with retrofit jobs, and providing information and financing to building owners to drive demand creation. Chicago’s plan includes a one-stop-shop information center where homeowners and building owners can arrange and finance projects that will identify rebate opportunities and qualified contractors to perform the work.
Senator Burris and the Democratic-led Congress passed the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that was signed into law by President Obama in February of last year.
“I am pleased to see these important Recovery Act funds are being allocated to commercial and residential projects in Chicago to reduce energy consumption and create vital green jobs in the private sector,” said Senator Burris. “With these funds, we continue to invest in green energy projects that will reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions while helping move the nation toward a clean energy economy.”
Vice President Joe Biden announced today the selection of 25 communities for up to $452 million in Recovery Act funding to ‘ramp-up’ energy efficiency building retrofits. Under the Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, communities, governments, and non-profit organizations will work together on pioneering and innovative programs for concentrated and broad-based retrofits of neighborhoods and towns – and eventually entire states. These partnerships will support large-scale retrofits and make energy efficiency accessible to hundreds of thousands of homeowners and businesses.
U.S. Department of Energy
www.energy.gov
