Part 1 reported that Obama and the Dems are planning a huge stimulus package with a big cleantech component and asked for ideas. Brian Castelli, Executive Vice President of the D.C.-based Alliance to Save Energy sent me their recommendations.

Brian has been a cleantech leader for over three decades. I got to know him at the DOE where he served as Chief of Staff to the assistant Secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, during which time we perfected our "bad cop-worse cop" routine. He has an MBA, served as a state energy director and has lots of other creds the world might know about if the link on ASE’s website to his bio wasn’t broken.

Here are the Alliance’s proposals:

Energy efficiency in state and local facilities

Appropriate $4 billion to DOE for grants for energy efficiency projects in state and local facilities including schools. The funding would pass through the State Energy Program using the existing distribution formula. Studies indicate that the potential for energy efficiency investments in the public sector is between $35 and $70 billion, and that less than 25 percent of all state buildings have had comprehensive energy-efficiency retrofits, which suggests that the potential for job creation and energy savings is quite large. Half should be distributed to states within 3 months of enactment based on the usual distribution formula; the remaining funds shall be available for 2 years after enactment and their allocation may consider evaluation of the initial funds The Program may retain 4 percent of the funds for administrative costs.

Outcomes:
1. 24,000 job years (based on commercial building energy efficiency labor intensity estimate of 5.9 jobs per $1 million invested) on same timetable.
2. Energy savings will help strapped state and local governments, and result in air quality and other benefits. Energy savings could reach 36 trillion Btus (based on estimate of 9 billion Btu savings per $1 million invested).

Green jobs workforce training

Appropriate $250 million over two years to the Department of Labor for workforce training programs under the Green Jobs Act that was in EISA. The programs could be used to train displaced and unemployed workers (especially in the construction industry) to retrofit homes. These workers might be used to retrofit foreclosed homes owned by the federal government. Appropriate an additional $250 million over two years to DOE and EPA for programs that include training for industrial and building energy audits and building efficiency.
$100,000,000 would go to the Energy Star program at the Environmental Protection Agency to remain available for 2 years after enactment, including for training for the Home Performance with Energy Star and Energy Star New Homes programs. $100,000,000 to the Building Energy Codes program at the Department of Energy to remain available for 2 years after enactment. $50,000,000 for the Industrial Assessment Center program at the Department of Energy to remain available for 2 years after enactment.

Weatherization of low-income homes

Appropriate $1.4 billion over two years to expand the national Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The funding will be used to expand infrastructure that is already in place to lower energy costs and thereby increase the purchasing power of low income consumers.
Outcomes:
1. 11,500 job years (based on residential building energy efficiency labor intensity estimate of 8.1 jobs per $1 million invested) on same timetable.
2. Energy savings will directly benefit low-income homeowners, and will help them keep their homes.

Energy efficiency improvements in federal buildings

Appropriate $1.2 billion to DOE to fund audits, metering and energy efficiency improvements in federal buildings. The Department of Energy would retain 2 percent of the funds as a tariff to improve staffing and fund the administration of the program. The funds should be available to agencies on a first-come, first-served basis, and should be available for 24 months after the effective date of the stimulus bill.

Outcomes:
1. 7,000 job years (based on commercial building energy efficiency labor intensity estimate of 5.9 jobs per $1 million invested) on same timetable.
2. Energy savings will help federal agencies and result in air quality and other benefits. Energy savings could reach 11 trillion Btus (based on estimate of 9 billion Btu savings per $1 million invested).

National consumer efficiency education campaign

Appropriate $90 million for the Public Information Initiative authorized in EPAct 05 for a two-year education campaign to help consumers to lower their energy bills. The campaign, which would be administered by the Department of Energy, would target the general American public, from students to seniors. It would encourage energy efficiency and conservation actions that can deliver work to home contractors, retailers, and manufacturers of efficient appliances and vehicles.

No-Cost (or Very Low Cost) Recommendations

Clear backlog of federal facility retrofit projects
The new Administration should take immediate administrative steps to direct DOE to clear the energy efficiency upgrade project "backlog" of $1.3 billion in major energy efficiency projects in federal facilities. In addition, Congress should consider providing a 25 percent match in Treasury funds if projects are implemented within 24 months of the effective date of the stimulus bill. In 2006, FEMP implemented more than $400 million in projects in a concerted six-to-nine-month "blitz," so there is a precedent for concerted action to clear the pipeline, and a history of positive results.

Outcomes:
1. 7,500 job years (based on commercial building energy efficiency labor intensity estimate of 5.9 jobs per $1 million invested) on same timetable.
2. Energy savings will help federal agencies and result in air quality and other benefits. Paybacks likely to average around 15 years, but no direct cost to the federal government as these projects would be funded through Energy Savings Performance Contracts.

Make energy tax credits refundable

Make the appliances energy efficiency tax credit refundable for twelve months; this will require a minor legislative change and will drive investment, employment and manufacture of appliances at the highest efficiency levels by providing cash-strapped manufacturers with funds to invest in improved efficiency. The score should be minimal as it mostly enables this year tax credits that were already scored when extended (most of the credit is capped for each manufacturer).

Outcomes:
1. Thousands of jobs would be saved and created (based on manufacturer plans).
2. Would benefit consumers by increasing production and decreasing cost of very high efficiency refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers.

Serious, practical stuff.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

We are going to have a huge economic stimulus package soon after Obama becomes President. And a big piece of it is going to be aimed at energy efficiency and renewable energy, as the NYT reported today in “Proposal Ties Economic Stimulus to Energy Plan.”

I have asked a bunch of my wonk EE friends for some energy efficiency ideas, which I’ll be posting in the coming days. I’d love to hear some ideas from you — please try to keep them practical. Focus on spending that creates jobs in the next two years AND that either saves energy (like weatherizing low-income homes) or helps jumpstart the transition to a clean energy economy (like ‘green’ transmission).

I’ll even send one or two the best ideas to the various transition folks I know. Realistically, it would be very hard to actually get into the stimulus package, but a good idea might still find its way into the huge energy bill that is equally inevitable for 2009, but on a somewhat slower track.

Try not to duplicate stuff in the Center for American Progress’s plan, “A Strategy for Green Recovery” (which is a good guide for how to write up an idea). Nor should you duplicate ideas in the NYT piece:

President-elect Barack Obama and leaders in Congress are fashioning a plan to pour billions of dollars into a jobs program to jolt the economy and lay the groundwork for a more energy-efficient one.

The details and cost of the so-called green-jobs program are still unclear, but a senior Obama aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a work in progress, said it would probably include the weatherizing of hundreds of thousands of homes, the installation of “smart meters” to monitor and reduce home energy use, and billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments for mass transit and infrastructure projects.

The green component of the much larger stimulus plan would cost at least $15 billion a year, and perhaps considerably more, depending on how the projects were defined, aides working on the package said …

Congressional officials working with the Obama administration said the stimulus program was also likely to involve tax breaks or direct government subsidies for a variety of clean energy projects, including solar arrays, wind farms, advanced biofuels and technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants.

The programs will be a part of a larger economic stimulus package whose outlines are faint but which is expected to cost $400 billion to $500 billion. Mr. Obama has said that his goal is to create or save 2.5 million jobs in the next two years. He has assigned to his economic and environmental advisers the task of devising a proposal that is expected to combine a shot of new federal money into existing federal and state programs and the possible creation of agencies modeled on New Deal public works programs.

“We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead,” Mr. Obama said in a radio address last month, echoing a campaign promise with a new sense of urgency …

“Now they’re talking about some large amount of money — what, $100 billion? — and spending it on windmills, job training, whatever,” said David Kreutzer, who studies energy economics and climate change at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. “But where do you get the $100 billion in the first place? Are you going to take $100 billion from some other part of the economy, are you going to tax some people to pay for it? Are you just going to print it or borrow it? The money has to come from somewhere.”The Obama team and Congressional leaders say they want a plan ready shortly after Congress reconvenes in January.

Mr. Obama has said that, after stabilizing the economy and the markets, putting the nation on the path to a more energy-efficient future is his top priority. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, said this week that rebuilding infrastructure and creating green jobs was “the first order of business that we will have” when Congress reconvenes in January. Several hearings are planned even before Mr. Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

State officials say a lack of financing has stalled billions of dollars in projects. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California told Mr. Obama this week that the states were ready to break ground with $136 billion in infrastructure projects that could provide new jobs within two years.

The American Public Transportation Association, which represents local mass transit authorities, said there were $8 billion in “ready-to-go” projects that could preserve or create thousands of jobs and provide more energy-efficient transportation.

Beverly A. Scott, the chief executive of Atlanta’s transit agency and head of the national association, told Congress in October that the projects included diesel-electric hybrid buses for Chicago; a new bus maintenance shop for Eugene, Ore.; and a set of crossover tracks to allow San Francisco’s rapid transit trains to turn around more quickly and carry more riders.

The Obama aide said the residential smart meters were a relatively small project that would not create a large number of jobs, but the aide said they would be an essential building block for the electric grid of the future. The new grid — a multiyear, multibillion-dollar project — would more efficiently move electricity from its source to its destination and would reward those who saved power or used it during off-peak hours.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, who heads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he was sympathetic to Mr. Obama’s desire to pump up the economy and reduce energy usage. But Mr. Bingaman said he was wary of big government spending programs without sufficient oversight or expertise.

“Just buying smart meters for everybody doesn’t really move the ball very far,” said Mr. Bingaman, who will hold a hearing next week to gather ideas for energy-related stimulus spending. “Realistically speaking, getting money properly spent in a short period of time requires some degree of competence in the government agency doing it.

The best plan is to start with existing programs that work, like weatherization, and build on those.”

Bingaman doesn’t get the big idea. But I know you do! Change is coming. Ideas welcome.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.