State officials hope to use millions of dollars in federal stimulus funding to add as much as 30 megawatts of solar power capacity at public facilities statewide, as early as this summer.
Ian Bowles, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said more than 50 potential projects have been identified, including the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and a waste-water treatment plant in Pittsfield. They would be built using money from several federal programs: the State Energy Program, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, and the State Revolving Fund for Clean Water and Drinking Water. State officials estimate that anywhere from $40 million to $100 million could be made available.
"This is the solar big bang," Bowles said. "This procurement alone would more than double the amount of solar installed in the Commonwealth."
James W. Hunt III, Boston's chief of environmental and energy services, said anything that can be done to increase the use of solar energy is a good thing....
You know, HE IS RIGHT; however, it needs to be DECENTRALIZED and LOCALIZED -- not part of some CENTRALIZED, GLOBALIZED AGENDA!!!
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The state unveiled its plans the same day the US Department of Energy said Massachusetts communities will receive a combined $42.2 million for energy efficiency and conservation projects through the federal block grant program funded by the stimulus bill.
Boston will receive $6.5 million, Worcester will get about $1.7 million, Springfield will get $1.5 million, and Cambridge will get just more than $1.1 million. The state energy office, meanwhile, will receive nearly $14.8 million. Boston will likely use the money it gets for energy efficiency upgrades to homes and city-owned facilities, Hunt said.
Nationwide, the government plans to invest $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects. "It's another sign of a new day dawning," said environmental advocate Seth Kaplan, of the Conservation Law Foundation. "There's some real hope and some real money here to allow positive things to happen on lots of levels. The feds are directly spurring energy efficiency."
That mean the limoing and the jetting gonna stop?
--more--"
Sorry, readers....
FLASHBACK:
"Renewable job market; Even as economy worsens, state's green companies are hiring" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | March 6, 2009
.... The workforce expansions are being partly spurred by the federal economic stimulus package, which includes billions for home energy-efficiency upgrades and an extension of a tax credit for renewable energy technologies such as wind power. Within the next two years, stimulus spending is expected to create or save 79,000 jobs in Massachusetts, and an estimated 3.5 million nationwide, according to the federal government....
Related: The Fart-Misting Promises of Green Jobs
Obama Stimulus Giveaway to Corporations
Stimulus Bill is For Jewish Interests Only
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It's unclear how just how many green jobs will be created in Massachusetts by stimulus-related initiatives, though preliminary estimates put the number at thousands.
And, of course, I BELIEVE MY GOVERNMENT despite the FALSE PROMISES, LIES and LOOTINGS!!!!!!!!!
According to a spokesman for congressman Ed Markey, the Malden Democrat who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Massachusetts is set to get $125 million in stimulus funds for weatherization projects and $55 million in state energy block grants to be used mainly for energy-efficiency programs. That money is expected to create an estimated 6,500 jobs related to weatherization and hundreds as part of the energy-efficiency programs.
Yeah, I'll deal with that crap in a minute.
The jobs are coming at a time when the US unemployment rate is at its highest in about two decades, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Massachusetts, the January unemployment rate was 7.4 percent - the highest since 1993 - and job losses for the month totaled 4,900, according to the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Kevin Shaw, a Boston partner at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers called the injection of stimulus money into the clean-tech sector a "silver lining" in a faltering economy.
And FOR THOSE THAT FATTEN OFF the PUBLIC TEAT, it is!!!!!
According to a recently released report from his firm, the legislation contains about $83 billion for "clean-tech spending and tax plans" and positions the industry as a "key driver of economic stabilization and job growth."
Still, he was realistic about just how much the nascent industry would be able to do for an economy whose biggest sectors, including auto manufacturing, are failing.....
Sigh. Need I even type it?
looking to hire.... hoping to hire.... hopes to bring on.... wants to hire.... --more--"
Yup, adds up to about 200 JOBS, folks, not THOUSANDS!!!!!!!!
