White House: Energy stimulus is working

A White House report unveiled Tuesday says tens of billions of dollars in stimulus energy funding is helping to greatly expand deployment of technologies such as solar power, “smart” electrical meters and advanced batteries.

The Obama administration is touting the projects as Republicans are increasingly charging that the big 2009 stimulus package was ineffective and continuing attacks on the White House economic team. Recent reports by the Energy Department’s inspector general also cited problems with distribution and use of the stimulus dollars, including “prevalent and widespread” spending delays.

{mosads}The White House report (found here) forecasts the effects of the law that provided $30 billion for renewable energy and efficiency programs, $6 billion for advanced vehicles and biofuels programs and billions of dollars in other energy spending.

“Thanks to investments made possible by the Recovery Act, we are unleashing the American innovation machine to change the way we use and produce energy in this country,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a prepared statement. “Just as importantly, these breakthroughs are helping create tens of thousands of new jobs, allowing the U.S. to continue as a leader in the global economy and helping to provide a better future for generations to come.”

According to the White House, the programs will help cut the cost of solar power in half in five years and bring the cost of batteries for electric vehicles down 70 percent by 2015, which is vital to making the vehicles affordable.

“In 2009, the U.S. had only two factories manufacturing advanced vehicle batteries that power electric vehicles and produced less than two percent of the world’s advanced vehicle batteries. The Recovery Act is investing over $2 billion in advanced battery and electric drive component manufacturing. By 2012, 30 factories with the capacity to produce an estimated 20 percent of the world’s advanced vehicle batteries will exist in the U.S. At full scale, they will produce enough batteries and components to support 500,000 plug-in and hybrid electric vehicles,” the report notes.

The various programs it touts include grants that renewable energy developers can access in lieu of traditional tax credit financing. The tax credits became much less useful during the economic downturn because project funders lacked the profits against which to claim the credits.

For wind power, the grant program “has provided over $3 billion in payments-in-lieu-of-tax-credits to more than 100 wind projects in 30 states around the country, totaling 5.3 GW of wind power capacity,” the report states.