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By Racquel Palmese Federal funds are flowing to California’s schools, community colleges and universities, as well as to local governments for energy efficiency programs. California school districts, colleges and universities will get an additional $1.3 billion in expedited State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) that have been fast-tracked. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), $49.6 million will be available for local energy efficiency programs. An estimated 20,000 clean energy workers will be trained under another ARRA funding mechanism providing $75 million for the nation’s largest state-sponsored green jobs training program. In the first phase of SFSF, an award of $3.2 billion was provided to K-12 schools, community colleges and universities in May. The rest was not scheduled to be released until December, but most of it will be made immediately available under an ARRA provision that allows states that have extreme budget difficulties to apply for up to 90 percent of their overall allocation. California’s total SFSF allocation is $4.9 billion. The funds will disbursed by the California Department of Education, the California Community Colleges and the University of California and Cal State University systems. Added on to what they received in May, K-12 schools will receive a total of $2.9 billion and higher education will receive a total of $1.5 billion. There will still be the remaining 10 percent of the SFSF allocation, or $488 million. To ensure that California receives it, Governor Schwarzenegger has announced a legislative package that will expand the statewide data system to include elements required by the Obama administration. This will help the state be in line to also receive competitive grant funding from the $4.35 billion Race to the Top, also funded under ARRA, designed for education innovation and reform. California was the first state in the nation to be federally approved for SFSF funds.
Green Jobs Training In what will be a boon to community colleges and workforce investment boards, California has just created nation’s largest state-sponsored green jobs training program, the Clean Energy Workforce Training Program (CEWTP), which leverages ARRA funds, public-private partnerships and state and local funding to invest $75 million to train clean energy workers. The is expected to “train over 20,000 clean energy workers who will help the state meet its goals of renewable energy development, climate change reduction, clean transportation and green building construction for a new green economy,” according to the Governor’s office. The statewide partnership of agencies includes the California Recovery Taskforce, the Green Collar Jobs Council, the California Energy Commission, the California Employment Development Department, the Employment Training Panel, the California Workforce Investment Board and other agencies, educational institutions, local workforce investment boards, community organizations and employers. The training program will reach out to unemployed workers and existing workers in need of re-skilling. Low-wage workers and youths entering the workforce will also be included. Training will take place at community colleges or workforce investment boards and partnership academies at high schools. Funding will come from $20 million from ARRA, $15 million from the CEC’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, $12 million from the Public Interest Energy Research Program, $5 million in EDD Workforce Investment Act funds and over $23 million in public-private partnership matching funds. For information, go to the CEC Green Jobs website: www.energy.ca.gov/greenjobs.
Dollars for Local Energy Programs The CEC has estimated that retrofitting California’s residential and non-residential structures for energy efficiency could save consumers 2.7 billion BTU’s annually and create over 2,100 jobs. To help meet this end, California received $49.6 million for local energy efficiency programs under the ARRA Energy Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program. It is expected to save local jurisdictions over $9 million per year. The program will be administered under the CEC, and funds will be available to 265 eligible small cities and 44 eligible small counties. The funds will be allocated on a per capita basis with a minimum of $25,000 for cities and $50,000 for counties. Local jurisdictions will also receive an unemployment adjustment so that communities hardest hit by the economic downturn will get more funds to help in their recovery. The commission expects to approve the EECBG program guidelines and simple application process at a special commission meeting on September 16th and eligible cities and counties can begin applying for funding almost immediately. Cities and counties will have until approximately September 2012 to complete their projects. For information about energy-related federal stimulus funding and programs visit http://energy.ca.gov/recovery/index.html |
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