March 17, 2010

Bill boosts energy savings

    A new bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is intended to make it easier for homeowners to pay for energy-saving home renovations and create jobs at the same time.
    The Rural Energy Savings Program would help rural electric cooperatives in offering financing that could be repaid on customers’ power bills, allowing families and businesses to repay the loan through savings on their monthly energy bill.
Oregon has 18 electric co-ops, including Wasco Electric Co-op in The Dalles.
Merkley is among a half-dozen senators sponsoring the bill. A companion bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
    Under the bill, co-ops could apply for program funding from Rural Utilities Services, formerly the Rural Electrification Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
    “One of the reasons they’re using this program for a segue is, as co-ops, most of us have been RUS borrowers in the past,” said Jeff Davis, general manager of Wasco Electric Co-op. Since inception, co-ops have used that funding stream to pay for development of their infrastructure.
    Typical consumer loans will be between $1,500 and $7,000, and will cover sealing, insulation, heating and air conditioning systems, boilers, roofs and other improvements that the utility has demonstrated to the RUS will produce sufficient savings, according to information from Merkley’s office.
    “It’s something we’ll definitely watch with interest,” Davis said. “If the options with this program are of benefit to the members of the co-op, it may be something we’ll look at pursuing.”
    Davis noted that Wasco Electric has been offering customers energy efficiency assistance since the 1980s through Bonneville Power Administration programs. The same is true of Northern Wasco County PUD, which serves an even larger clientele in Wasco County.
    While the Rural Energy Savings Program would assist only customers of electrical co-ops, Merkley also plans to introduce legislation for a similar program to serve PUD customers called Home Star, said Mike Westling, Merkley’s press secretary.
    “The difference here is for this Rural Energy Savings Program, it’s run through the rural electric co-ops,” Westling said. “Home star, which is draft legislation, and Building Star [the commercial building equivalent already introduced], will be run by either local and state governments, or other programs already established.”
The idea has been percolating in Oregon through a Portland program, Clean Energy Works.
    “It’s been developed at the local level there and legislation passed last year at the state level,” Westling said.
    The bill is meant to be complementary to existing energy-efficiency incentives, he added.
    “On the surface, if it stimulates additional conservation and energy-efficiency efforts, it’s definitely a positive thing,” said Dwight Langer, general manager of Northern Wasco County PUD. “We’re big supporters of that sort of thing. On the practical side, to me this is an option that has always been available to people.”
    While customers can’t now pay back energy-efficiency loans as part of their utility bills, as the Merkley legislation proposes, they can make home improvement loans for efficiency upgrades and use savings on their power bills to help pay back the loans, Langer said.
    “Our customers have invested literally millions of dollars in conservation over the years and achieved tremendous savings,” Langer said. “There has been tremendous investment from the business community — a significant investment in achieving hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours in savings.”
    Merkley’s bill is attached to upcoming jobs legislation. In addition to energy savings for home owners, he says the bill will also generate jobs in the energy-efficiency fields.
    “It’s a major engine for jobs creation,” Westling said, “in installation, energy-efficiency renovations, manufacturing of insulation and roofing, a lot of the products used to make homes and buildings more energy-efficient. Almost all of those products are made in the United States of America.”
    Putting people back to work and lowering family expenses are the goals of the program, Merkley said in an announcement of the legislation.
    “This program will help the families and businesses in rural areas who can’t afford the cost of a home or building renovation by offering them low-cost loans that they can repay out of the money they will save on their energy bills.”