On February 2, it was standing room only in Room 2253 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. Legislative assistants, non-profit staffers, state energy officials, and energy entrepreneurs all squeezed together to listen to a panel discussion on state energy activities and federal economic recovery legislation. The issue? Expansion of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the State Energy Program (SEP), and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) as part of the near-trillion-dollar stimulus package.

Not long ago, attendance at renewable energy and energy efficiency briefings on Capitol Hill was light enough to afford extra chairs to hold your briefcase or use as an ottoman. No longer. The buzz around the New Energy Economy is deafening, and when tied to $850 billion, it gets — what’s louder than deafening? Anyway, it’s really loud.

The panel included Philip Giudice, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; Steve Payne, Managing Director of the State of Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development; and Jo Ann Choate, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Coordinator at the Maine State Housing Authority.

Mr. Giudice discussed the work of state energy offices across the country in addressing the needs of homeowners and businesses across all sectors of the economy.  He noted that fully planned or "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects are often discussed as immediate targets for stimulus funding.  Those projects are not limited to efforts that would literally use a shovel, like highway and bridge improvements — many energy efficiency and renewable energy projects are ready to go as well. In fact, a NASEO (National Association of State Energy Officials) survey of states identified over $8 billion of "shovel-ready" energy projects nationwide.

Mr. Giudice focused his presentation on the U.S. State Energy Program, which operates in all the states, the District of Columbia, and the territories, as the basic state-federal partnership in the energy efficiency and renewable energy area. According to Mr. Giudice, despite being severely underfunded for many years, the state energy offices manage billions of dollars each year in a variety of energy programs. Their activities include providing direct rebates to consumers, promoting Energy Star products, working with governmental entities to implement energy efficiency measures, and managing programs with energy services companies, contractors, utilities, and public benefits funds.

 Mr. Payne, of Washington state, began his presentation by focusing on the goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which include investment in our country’s energy independence. He suggested that a good place for that investment would be the Weatherization Assistance Program, currently proposed to receive $6.2 billion in the House-passed version of the bill and $2.9 billion in the Senate version.

 Mr. Payne laid out the facts: WAP is already a successful public-private partnership using nearly $1 billion in federal, state, local, utility, and private funds to reach more than 150,000 homes each year. The program’s network is comprised of more than 13,000 people working directly for state and local agencies or for private contractors employed by the network. There are an additional 8,000 people involved in providing related services like training, materials, equipment manufacturing, and technical assistance to the network.

The expansion of WAP to meet the goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would put an additional 31,000 people to work directly, and employ thousands more in related services. One would expect that it will jump-start not only entrepreneurial activity in the areas of low-income work, but also broader market activity in other areas of weatherization, efficiency, and energy. The multiplier effect of WAP funding is surely massive.

 Ms. Choate made clear the need for weatherization and LIHEAP assistance for many American households. She reported that applications for LIHEAP are reaching record levels, and that according to a recent survey, states expect to serve about 7.3 million households this year, a 25% increase over 2008.

Ms. Choate believes that the increase reflects the rise in unemployment as well as continuing high home energy prices. She pointed to data provided by the US Energy Information Administration showing that average winter home energy costs have increased by almost 50% in the past five years, from $681 during 2002-03 to $990 last year — far ahead of income inflation — and they are expected to remain at about the same level this year.

 Ms. Choate spoke as an advocate for the resource-deprived, saying that low income families struggle to pay their home energy bills and that LIHEAP is the one way that many manage to do so. A recent survey of more than 1,200 poor families in Maine found that 32% went without food for at least a day, 42% went without medical or dental care, and 38% did not fill prescriptions or took less than the full dose of medicine.

 According to Ms. Choate, last year's high energy prices resulted in extremely high rates of shut-offs by utilities across the nation as families struggled to pay their energy bills. Rising unemployment is likely to make the situation even worse in 2009.

You are living in a country where people are literally freezing to death because they can’t afford the cost of energy. Recently, a 93 year-old man in Bay City, Michigan, froze to death just days after the city limited his flow of electricity for not paying his bills. He owed $1100.

 So what to do? It seems like a no-brainer (easily said in DC, I know), but here’s  the amazing part: Historically, every federal dollar invested in the State Energy Program has provided over $7 in energy savings and leveraged almost $11 in non-federal investment.

At the tip of the spear are the state energy offices, which, according to the presentation, have over 30 years of experience successfully implementing real programs and policies. They have managed energy efficiency programs in hundreds of millions of square feet of building space, programs for alternative motor fuels and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and, according to Mr. Giudice, billions of dollars of energy efficiency financing programs.

What many people forget in our federally focused dialogues is how much heavy lifting is done at the state level. As Mr. Giudice noted, the goals in the individual states include specific plans to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources. The SEP, WAP, and LIHEAP programs reduce dependence on imported oil and develop alternative markets for new energy technologies. Many states are focused on new incentives for adoption of clean energy initiatives, including advanced energy efficient building codes, creative rate policies, and innovative financing mechanisms.

 The crowd at the briefing was receptive, and questions were all friendly and supportive. It’s hard to argue with the idea of juicing up programs that not only help the disadvantaged, but also the earth’s climate and our energy independence at the same time. My guess is that it isn’t often that a congressional vote can get the country on the scoreboard with a double or triple play. There are few silver bullets in public policy, but supporting the men and women at the state level who are implementing such worthwhile programs on the ground is pretty darn close to a home run. Here’s hoping our federal legislators swing for the fences when it comes to WAP, LIHEAP, and the SEPs.