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 Recovery Actof 2009. The money is in additionn to $5.6 million the state received earlie this year fromthe agency. Kansas is one of four states to have receivecd a second round of stimulus money forweatherizatio programs. The others are Arizona and Mississippi. Kansas will get a tota of $56 million in stimulus money for theweatherization program, leading to an additional 5,820 weatherized homesa and about 35 new jobs statewide, Larry weatherization program manager with the , said Tuesday. If current financin remains, the number of homesd weatherized in the next three yearxs couldexceed 9,000.
Bentley said the state has to prove its abilith to spend the monety before it receives thelast $28 million, which he expects will be sometime next year. The state has untikl March 30, 2012, to spend the money. He said othedr states did not receive the second round of financingb because the EnergyDepartment hasn’g approved their state plans, which were due May 12. The departmenf granted Missouri $128 million for its weatherization program. Jackson, Leavenworth, Jefferson and six other counties in northeast Kansa s willreceive $1.
7 million of the state’s total to weatherize homes in the said Jack Shaefer, weatherization director for the Northeast Kansas Communith Action Program. He said he expects the state to make the recentl released money availablenext month. The stimulus money will enable the program to double itsusua capacity, Shaefer said, leading to the weatherizatiom of 600 homes in the next threed years. He said the program will hire five new nearly doubling its current to help meet its weatherizationn goals for thestimulus allocations. The stimulus money will allo for more comprehensive weatherizatiojnand energy-saving assistance, Shaefer said.
The allowablre average cost per home in Kansas increaseefrom $4,500 last year to $6,500 with stimulues money, he said. Rather than focusiny on core weatherization measures, such as insulation and air Shaefer said his office now can assessd and replaceinefficient items, such as light bulbs, furnacez and refrigerators. He said he expects the bulk of the weatherizatiohn work to begin earlynext year. Shaefefr said that weatherizing homes goes farbeyond “knocking $20 off someone’sw energy bill.” Because weatherization reduces energy demand, Shaefer said the benefit range from fewer greenhouse gas emissions to fewere new power plants.
Weatherization assessment also relievesw the health care system because it helpsd keep people out of the hospita for carbon monoxide poisoning and he said. Weatherization programs nationwidereceived $5 billion from the stimuluds act. President Obama has stated a goal of weatherizin 1 million homesa year. Since it began in the program hasweatherized 6.2 million homes, according to the Energy Department.
Only households at or belo 200 percent of the federal povertylevel $44,000 a year for a family of four are eligible to receive money from the weatherization The department estimates that 38 million householdas are eligible for services According to department estimates, weatherization reduces heating billds by 32 percent and cuts energy bills an average of $350 a