Stimulus money to fund local "green" projects
| Saturday, Nov 28 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Nov 28 2009 12:00 PM
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Felix Adamo / The Californian Art Chianello at the grease septage receiving station at the waste water teatment plant. Cooking grease collected from restaurants is brought here.
The $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed in February included billions for clean, renewable energy programs, spurring talk that "green" industries would be the next boom field for job seekers.
With the year nearing an end and Kern County facing 14.5 percent unemployment, it's reasonable to ask what impact, if any, that money has had here.
The answer isn't entirely clear cut. There is money headed our way, but the job outlook is murky.
"Federal funding is like Fred Flintstone," said Bruce Piasecki, a green industry consultant with AHC Group in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "It's in a stone V.W., and the people running it sometimes have bare feet and are pushing it uphill.
"It takes a while for that stone V.W. to get some momentum."
Still, there are some mouthwatering prospects.
Among confirmed projects funded at least partly by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars is the installation of a $6.8 million solar energy system at Wastewater Treatment Plant No. 3.
The federal government is footing the first $3.4 million, and another $2.3 million will be paid out over five years through a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. rebate program. The city will fund the balance.
City officials are in the process of getting bids from contractors, and hope to begin the solar project in March. The work there is expected to create about 74 jobs and save 1,510 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, said plant manager Art Chianello.
"This is a great investment, because you can break even on electrical savings in less than two years, so it's a no-brainer," he said.
Also, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month announced 34 recipients of $27 million in grants as part of the California Clean Energy Workforce Training Program, a state-sponsored green jobs training program that got stimulus money.
Two of the 34 recipients are in Kern County.
"California's goals in renewable energy development, climate change reduction, clean transportation and green building are driving green job growth, and these funds are pivotal to building a workforce to meet that demand," the governor said in a statement released at the time. "This program represents the kind of innovative thinking needed to steer our economy toward a greener future while targeting the unemployed, underemployed and new workforce members at a time when we must do everything possible to help Californians return to work."
The program is supposed to train at least 5,600 people in jobs such as installing solar panels, maintaining electric vehicles, computer programming and researching fuel cell technologies.
The local programs are:
* A partnership led by the Kern Community College District was awarded $766,406 to train 350 utility workers, including 160 wind and 80 solar operations and maintenance technicians to support renewable energy in the Kern, Inyo, Mono and Tulare county region.
* A group calling itself the Kern/Inyo/Mono Consortium was awarded $319,655 to implement apprenticeship programs for 120 people with the aim of getting them trained for "green collar jobs."
Bakersfield-based Employers' Training Resource is among the consortium administrators.
If Kern County has been made fun of for its air quality and other environmental issues, the flipside is that it's uniquely positioned to capitalize on green spending because of the role of energy and agriculture in the local economy, consultant Piasecki said.
"There's a lot of room for both to become cleaner and more efficient," he said.
