DeLauro's Energy Bill Hopes to Create Jobs

A new bill proposed by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, hopes to fix the ailing economy, create jobs and make the United States more energy efficient all at once. The legislation would allow the Department of Energy to issue low-interest loans for businesses and municipalities in order to make existing buildings more energy efficient.

“For these programs the time has come. We’ve got the manufacturers. We’ve got the technology,” said DeLauro at a press conference in West Haven on Tuesday. “What we need to do is…partner with industry to create jobs.”

Citing a University of Massachusetts Amherst research study (see page six of the link), press materials provided by DeLauro’s office said that each $1 million spent on energy-related building retrofits creates ten jobs. DeLauro hopes that with $15 billion in spending that over the next decade that would later be repaid, more than 1 million jobs can be created.

The press conference was at headquarters of The Lighting Quotient, a 35-year-old West Haven manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting installations. Some of their projects have included Grand Central Station and John F. Kennedy International Airport. The CEO believes the proposed legislation would improve business on multiple fronts.

Alison Schieffelin Walker said that the "DeLauro Job Creation and Energy Efficient Act" would allow her to retrofit the company’s headquarters, which is based in an old brick factory on the Boston Post Road, while also allowing her to expand her business.

With loans being tightly dispersed by banks, she said reinvesting in her business is difficult.

“It’s very hard even for a 35-year-old viable business with no debt on their balance sheet to secure financing for important projects,” Schieffelin Walker said.

She hasn't calculated the exact effect the bill would have on her business, but said the increased awareness of energy efficiency programs and the low-interest loans are "priceless."

DeLauro, who is submitting the bill to the legislature this week, hopes the bill will pass with bipartisan support, as colleagues from both parties are working on similar bills.

She explained that the risk of default for loans is very low since the money will be repaid through energy savings attained by the retrofits. According to her office, the financing is limited to “projects that are reasonably expected to meet energy savings from the retrofit.”

In Connecticut, the state's manufacturing jobs have been particularly hard-hit in the past decade. Charles Rothenberger, staff attorney for the nonprofit Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said that the state is in a good position to take advantage of the proposed legislation.

"Most of the buildings we have in the state were built decades before we had any meaningful energy code whatsoever, so there's a lot of opportunity...energy efficiency puts money directly back in the pockets of consumers," he said.