It makes sense for families to keep out winter’s chill and reduce energy costs by caulking and otherwise “weatherizing” their homes. But we doubt those efforts should cost $57,000 even in old, drafty homes.
Nevertheless, that’s the average amount the federal government is spending per home for weatherization through a $5 billion program supposedly meant to save energy and create jobs.
So far, the government has spent $522 million of your tax money from the “stimulus” fund on the weatherization program. But it has weatherized only 9,100 homes, says the Government Accountability Office. That’s about $57,000 per home!
Where is all the money going, since clearly it doesn’t cost that much to make a typical home more energy-efficient?
For one thing, the weatherization grants require that contractors pay the “prevailing wage” in the county where work is performed, ABC News reported. The trouble is, there are more than 3,000 counties nationwide. So the Department of Labor has had to use untold man hours and resources to determine the “prevailing wage” in every county in America, the GAO noted.
In addition, somebody has to check on whether a home has some kind of historic status, triggering another review before the work starts. ABC reported that 90 percent of the homes in Michigan slated for weatherization had to go through a historic-status check, though there are only two workers in Michigan’s historic preservation office.
Amazingly, despite the program’s obvious inefficiency and outlandish cost, President Barack Obama wants to pump an additional $10 billion into this boondoggle.
Weatherizing homes is sensible, but it is not federal business anytime — much less in the midst of a recession when our national debt is approaching $14.3 trillion.