According to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, that $5 billion federal weatherization program which was supposed to save energy and create jobs has been a miserable failure. GAO says that by the end of 2009, only 9,100 homes had been weatherized, while the Department of Energy claims it weatherized more than 22,000 homes last year with recovery funding. Regardless of which government agency you believe, the program weatherized less than one percent of the 593,000 homes that the government hopes to complete before the Recovery Act expires in March 2012:

The problem is red tape, according to the GAO. Local governments and contractors have to jump through several hoops before getting full funding.

For example, the Recovery Act included so-called Davis-Bacon requirements for all weatherization grants. Davis-Bacon is a Depression-era law meant to ensure equitable pay for workers on federally funded projects. Under that law, the grants may only go to projects that pay a “prevailing wage” on par with private-sector employers.

The Department of Labor spent most of the past year trying to determine the prevailing wage for weatherization work, a determination that had to be made for each of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States, according to the GAO report.

Secondly, many homes have to go through a National Historic Preservation Trust review before work can begin. The report quoted Michigan state officials as saying that 90 percent of the homes to be weatherized must go through that review process, but the state only has two employees in its historic preservation office.

That’s the problem with federal mandates when Washington dangles money in front of the states. Greedy legislatures see what they think is “free money,” but when they wake up with a cash hangover, they realize that by agreeing to take the funds, they have buried themselves under a mountain of new regulations. And in true government fashion, little actual work gets done.

Consider the jobs angle:

A year ago, the administration said the money would put 87,000 Americans to work through partnerships with the Department of Energy and state and local governments.

The Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago was supposed to be a Phoenix-from-the-ashes success story. The plant was shut down in December of 2008 and made the network newscasts when workers occupied the plant, refusing to leave until they were given severance and accrued vacation pay. Leftumentary maker Michael Moore featured the saga as part of his film, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

The story appeared to be headed for a happy ending when another company, Serious Materials, purchased the plant early in 2009 and promised to rehire all 250 workers by summer, counting on weatherization incentives in the Recovery Act to fuel demand for energy-efficient windows.

The administration played the story for all it could squeeze out of it. Veep Joe Biden made a highly-publicized visit to the factory in April, touting it as an example of how the $787 billion stimulus act “created” green jobs. A board member from Serious Materials was called to the White House in March to introduce President Obama for a speech on clean energy and new technology.

But the success story turned into a tragic comedy:

Months after Serious Materials chief executive Kevin Surace planned to be churning out windows, the factory still has very few customers and has hired back fewer than 20 workers. In fact, Surace said the company is spending $100,000 a week just to keep the factory open.

Things have not gone well, partly due to the alleged misdeeds of former Republic Windows chief executive Richard Gillman, who was arrested Sept. 10 on charges including money laundering, theft and fraud. Surace said Gillman destroyed relationships with potential buyers and suppliers, removed equipment and left computer systems in shambles.

But the main reason for the delay, Surace said, is that stimulus funds and tax credits for weatherization have not generated the skyrocketing demand he had envisioned for his company’s windows.

In the meantime, the former Republic Windows workers are awaiting the call from Serious Materials and watching their unemployment benefits run out. “There aren’t other jobs for them in this economy,” said Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110, which represented Republic Windows workers and also signed a contract with Serious Materials.

The company, which has managed to get some operating cash from new investors, and the Obama administration keep saying business will improve, but very few real jobs, new or old, have resulted from the Weatherization program or the stimulus. Bogus jobs, however are another story.

- JP

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