Recently we participated in an event in Chicago to celebrate National Weatherization Day (haven't seen the greeting card for that one yet!). The purpose was to raise awareness among homeowners that there are major new resources available for cutting your energy use and utility bills, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). ARRA is putting people to work in these programs all over the country. In Cook County, the Community Economic Development Association of Cook County, or CEDA, is the agency providing the jobs and the services. Other community action agencies are implementing similar programs elsewhere in Illinois.
Here's some highlights from National Weatherization Day event at an apartment building in Chicago's Austin community:
The jobs and energy savings being created through ARRA funding is especially exciting here in Illinois, where we recently won a great victory for funding this important work. As part of the state capital spending plan approved by the General Assembly this year, $425 million was budgeted for weatherization programs in the future. Those dollars will be available after the federal ARRA funding has been spent, allowing Illinois to sustain the changes, jobs, and energy savings initiated by federal funding well into the future.
We're also proud of the fact that we passed state legislation this year to require state-of-the-art buidling codes for energy efficiency statewide, so in the decades ahead, new Illinois buildings will be energy efficient from the beginning.
Green jobs are here now, and more are on the way!
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