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President Obama will sign H.R. 1, the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act into law today. How will this legislation affect Kansas?
The Center for American Progress has come out with a map showing the state by state breakdown of funds. It now looks like Kansas will receive $4.43 billion for its general economic recovery.
Note - these funds represent only a baseline
for what states can receive from the federal government. About 70% of
the funds are direct allocations. The remaining 30% will be distributed
through competitive grants or federal programs
When it comes to energy dollars, part of the additional disbursement depends on state energy policies.
What does Kansas have to do to become competitive in energy policy?
Take a look at the language of the energy efficiency provisions in the
bill. $2.1 billion additional dollars are available for energy efficiency.
The checklist for "competitive" reads like this: The Governor must
be able to certify that state utilities and regulators support -
- integrated resource planning
- rate design that reimburses energy efficiency (decoupling)
- residential and commercial energy efficiency building codes
- rate recovery for smart grid investments
- time-based pricing, etc.
Does Kansas qualify? This is a great question, and I have heard a lot of debate on that point. It's arguable.
(PS: apologies - I bet a dollar that those links for HR 1 break. if they do, go here and start searching for HR 1 yourself. Hint: when you get to the bill text, scroll waaaay past all the "struck out" sections.)
(also thanks to all those who helped me track down the information for this entry!)
--- Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org |
