City of Seattle defends $20 million weatherization program

A $20 million city of Seattle program to weatherize homes and businesses is off to a slow start. So slow, it was lampooned by Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

The news parody program ridiculed Community Power Works’ promise of creating 2,000 living wage jobs. Halfway through the three-year program, the equivalent number of full time jobs created is closer to 16.

At a media event on Friday, the city’s Jill Simmons insisted the program is making a difference and predicted more people would sign up, thanks to improvements in the incentives and loans offered to home owners and commercial property holders.

“I’m not going to speak to why the national media chooses to focus on our program, I’m just going to speak to what we have and our results but, this is real, these are real people, it’s real work, these are real homes and we felt we needed to show the face of Community Power Works and this is it,” said Simmons.

The three-year federal stimulus grant program promised to upgrade 2,000 homes, but halfway through, just 71 homes have been improved.

Simmons suggested that the economy has made people careful about spending money for things such as energy efficiency.

“As we all know, this is tough economic times and so people are having to make the best decisions they can for their homes,” said Simmons. “We believe in launching the new, easier to understand incentive package (and) better financing rates, we’re really changing the dynamic and we’re going to see many homeowners step up and say ‘I want to make the investment in my home.'”

Simmons said 125 homes are in the pipeline for energy audits and winterization. She said incentives, low cost loans and other savings could cut the cost of a typical $10,000 energy upgrade in half.