EECBG Planning and Strategy Development for Local Governments Webcast Presentation (Text Version)
Below is a text version of the June 11, 2009 EECBG Planning and Strategy Development for Local Governments presentation.
Michael Myers:
Well, welcome to the U.S. Department of Energy's Webinar Series on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. Today's webinar will focus on the project planning and strategy development for local governments. As a participant, you will have the opportunity throughout the presentation to send questions online to the host. Please use the question and answer box in the lower right-hand corner of your screen to submit your questions. Keep your questions brief and to the point. Now it is our hope to answer many of your questions today and when a question is selected, we may actually be able to call out your name and ask your question. Again, thank you for joining us today.
First Slide: Speakers
Michael Myers:
For today's webinar, our speakers include Charlie Hemmeline from the U.S. Department of Energy and our facilitators include George Burmeister from the Colorado Energy Group and myself, Michael Myers, from Lockheed Martin. Again, feel free to send in your questions and again, the question box is on your lower right-hand corner, and we will continue to move forward.
George. George, can you hear us?
George Burmeister:
Yes. Thank you for taking the time to participate on the call. DOE is doing their best to get the funds out the door as soon as possible and to their credit, they solicited assistance from local and state government leaders across the country and their input is always reflected in these webinars, so thank you.
We've got a little division of labor this week. I've been in Washington, D.C. working with your local government associations and Mike Myers has been in Golden, Colorado helping train the laboratory folks who'll be reviewing your submittals, so Michael has new information to share with you along the way today.
Next Slide: Purpose
George Burmeister:
The purpose of the call today is that we have multiple purposes. One, we want to give you some general background on the program. We realize many of you have sat through multiple webinars and we'll keep that in mind. We'll try to keep it fresh and add some new things for you. Two, we want you to see specific examples of projects and activities. We're asked about this constantly, we talk with you daily about it, and after seeing these, it should increase your comfort level and your confidence as you fill out your forms. Three, we want to give you details on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, and four, give you some guidance for successful program implementation. Yes, and the screens will be available after the seminar, answering questions as we go.
Next Slide: Agenda
George Burmeister:
The agenda is self-explanatory. I'm gonna do an overview of the block grant program, tell you about the eligible activities. We have a lot of additional resources. The DOE is all about providing resources to you and then we'll do questions and answers with Charlie and Michael Myers and myself answering those, as well.
Next Slide: Secretary Chu on the Block Grants
George Burmeister:
We are very fortunate to have a secretary of energy that is very involved and engaged in the block grant program. He used to write speeches for Secretary Hazel O'Leary. She was a big advocate for energy efficiency and renewable energy and I think Secretary Chu is matching that. He's very interested in the program, so we're lucky.
Next, please.
Next Slide: EERE Recovery Act Funding Overview
George Burmeister:
Funding overview. People describe it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I truly believe that. 3.2 billion plus or minus in the block grant program. You combine that with Weatherization and the State Energy Program and I will urge you on the call to please talk to your state energy office and combine your efforts where you can. There's just a lot of money going into energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, the biggest shock of money into the states in many, many years.
Next, please.
Next Slide: Program Purpose
George Burmeister:
Program purpose. Right from the legislation, very little time on this, but we reduce fossil fuel emissions and energy use and improve energy efficiency across sectors.
Next Slide: Objectives
George Burmeister:
The objectives. I want to bring your attention to under Strategic Energies, the next to the last bullet, leverage funds. Department of Energy representatives are very, very interested in leveraging the programs in the out years, the years that go beyond the block grant program timeframe, so that's huge. It's a big, big issue and it's all about creating jobs.
Please.
Next Slide: Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)
George Burmeister:
I'm gonna give the Funding Opportunity Announcement slide to you 'cause you're well versed at that. Mike Myers, please.
Michael Myers:
Thanks, George, and this is the Funding Opportunity Announcement or FOA, and hopefully everybody has - you have seen this. Hopefully you have downloaded it already and have looked it through. If not, this is available through the website and we'll post our website on a regular basis here and again, at the end of the presentation. That website, again, is www.eecbg.energy.gov, and again, you can download the FOA, but this is the primary document for these funds. Again, George went over some of the funding.
Next Slide: Appropriations
Michael Myers:
You can see here the appropriations for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant total about 3.2 billion. Funds, you can see to the right-hand column, to cities and counties, to states, to tribal governments. There also will be competitive grants that will be announced later on, as well, but you can see approximately 400 million there, as well, for competitive grants for future funding.
Next Slide: Application Deadline
Michael Myers:
A couple of key things that we do want to highlight here, again, is the application deadline is June 25th. It's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. A couple of key pieces here. If you do not have your DUNS number, the Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System or DUNS number, you can see the website here to go get it. It's also in the FOA.
The other key item is the Central Contractor Registration or the CCR. Now we know that a number of local government have had some troubles with the CCR which is why it's imperative if you have not registered with your - and have a CCR registration, please do so immediately. And if you have troubles with that, we'll give you a website for questions and for helpful information at the end of this webinar, as well.
But it very much is imperative that you have your DUNS number. You have to have the Central Contractor Registration or CCR, as well.
Remember when you are on FedConnect, register as a vendor. Again, that's been some issues and questions have come up on that, as well. Do register as a vendor and you'll see the website here. Again, at the very bottom of the screen you will see that, again, that if you do not have the FOA, but hopefully you do, again, you have the website where you can download that particular document.
Next Slide: CRITICAL STEP! Join the Response Team
Michael Myers:
This screen, again, is when you are on FedConnect, remember to join as to the Response Team. It's very important to do that. We also have a copy of the - there's been a webinar on the FedConnect and the grant process, application process. There is a copy of the PDF of that presentation, of that webcast. It is also on that web page, again, www.eecbg.energy.gov. So if you're looking for some information or looking for a previous webcast, please go to the website and download that information, as well.
Next Slide: Eligible Uses of Funds
Michael Myers:
There's a wide range of eligibility and types of projects that you can do under the use of funds, and you can see there's about 14 different main areas from developing a wide range of energy efficiency and energy conservation funds. It's important to realize that these funds can be used community wide. They're not just for your own city buildings or county facilities but they can be used for residential and commercial, other types of projects. They can be part of large-scale programs that you may have for the community. There's, again, a wide range of activities that you can use these funds for and that have benefits that pay for themselves year after year. Remember that these funds must be obligated within 18 months and expended within 36 months.
There's a wide range of eligibility and project categories from developing an energy efficiency strategy to doing building codes and transportation, and we're gonna go over each one of these here.
Next Slide: What Do You Plan To Do?
Michael Myers:
So the question is what do you plan to do and what sort of eligible activities are you interested in? And to do that, I'm gonna turn this back over to George. George?
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. Again, we're kind of dividing _____. I'm in Washington this week while Mike is in Colorado.
Next Slide: Development of a Strategic Plan
George Burmeister:
Development of energy efficiency and conservation plan or strategic plan, we - I want to use an example from my home state of Colorado and a city known for energy efficiency, Fort Collins. Please note that DOE is looking for existing and/or new program plans. This program is absolutely tailor-made for developing these comprehensive plans. It's okay if you have a program already in place that you want to augment or bolster or infuse with new capital and human resources.
When I look at this _____, we just committed - or just finished a survey, a national survey for Public Technology Institute on the status of sustainability programs across the country and we learned that many of you out there just started these comprehensive programs only within the last one to two years. So it's good news. You're in the early infancy stages of these programs for the most part and your slates are relatively clean so you can make these programs stronger or start new ones through this activity.
Note No. 4 here on the slide. If you do not submit Attachment D with your application, you still can receive up to $250,000.00 to develop your EE&C strategy. We will talk about this over the rest of this webinar and keep the questions coming, by the way. We're writing them down. We're getting answers for you as they're coming in here, so thank you.
Next slide.
Next Slide: Technical Consultant Services
George Burmeister:
Technical consultant services. This activity is important because DOE wants you to rely on existing, proven expertise where able without reinventing the wheel or spending funds on great ideas, frankly, without great talent. And there's plenty of great talent out there across the country and plenty of great consultants out there and we know many of them have been lined up at your door since this legislation passed. And while not endorsing anyone specific, use people like big companies or big organizations like the National Association of Energy Service Companies, out in California, Stockton-based Console that helped the city of Fresno that talked on a webinar last week with us. Use consultants that have great experience in this area and get the best consultants you can early.
Next Slide: Residential and Commercial Building Energy Audits
George Burmeister:
No. 3, the next one, Residential and Commercial Building Energy Audits. Audit programs are great job creators and OMB has told us they're gonna use $92,000.00 as a job year, so this is all about creating jobs and creating as many as you can through this block grant program. It's about getting the message out while you have the funding and the resources to do, so obviously your education and outreach efforts need to be coordinated as part of this Commercial and Residential Building Energy Audit Program.
Next Slide: Financial Incentive Programs
George Burmeister:
Financial incentives. (Recording playing on top of speaker) I believe other DOE staff have talked about this activity. _____ _____ _____ technical glitch. Are you there?
Is there somebody that's working on _____ _____ _____ _____ move on to the financial incentive program. This _____ DOE staff talk more about this activity _____ _____ _____ _____. We had a special webinar on this topic alone _____ _____. Financial incentives are obviously leverage _____ _____ _____ financial incentive programs are just fantastic opportunities.
If you can hear me, if you can move to the next slide, that'd be great.
Next Slide: Energy Efficiency Retrofits
George Burmeister:
_____ _____ turn that off _____ _____ _____ somebody. Can everybody hear that? _____ _____ _____ can you hear my okay despite the music or _____ _____. There, it sounds like somebody's got it off. Thank you! Sorry about that, folks. Somebody's got it. Thank you for the help.
Energy efficiency retrofits. Technical glitch, we're moving on. Working on retrofits and leveraging an existing energy service company project is an excellent use of the funds. Industrial program are essential to many of your efforts, as well, and this is a great area where you can propose those industrial retrofit programs.
Next slide, please.
Next Slide: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Program for Buildings and Facilities
George Burmeister:
Energy efficiency and conservation program for buildings and facilities. You see here a home energy audit company at work and that's intentional. It's a labor-intensive program. Skip Laitner with ACEEE, who is off in Paris right now giving a speech, he's a national expert on job creation. He'll tell ya these programs are wonderful job trainers, again, and starting up an energy efficiency or an energy conservation program for buildings is something that you can combine with your weatherization program and your SEP dollars.
Next, please.
Next Slide: Development and Implementation of Transportation Programs
George Burmeister:
Transportation programs near and dear to many of your hearts; one of the most important areas for many of you sustainability plans and one of the biggest nuts to crack, as it were. If you want to reduce vehicle miles traveled and trips taken, you can design and implement a transit-oriented development or a transit-oriented demand project using these funds. A super opportunity, very exciting, and one of the most lucrative as far as potential energy savings for some of you.
That's the seven. Sorry about the technical difficulties we had.
Next Slide: Building Codes and Inspections to Promote Building Energy Efficiency
George Burmeister:
But Mike, I'm gonna turn it over to you for No. 8, building codes. You've been working on building codes as much as anybody in the country the last 20 years. Take it away, please, Mike.
Michael Myers:
George, thank you. Again, No. 8, the next project element to look at it going to be the building codes and inspections to promote energy efficiency. Again, there are advanced building codes are a great way to achieve long-term energy savings. Many of you already, local governments nationwide, have adopted a range of new energy and sustainability development codes. The Department of Energy has lots of information available on how to achieve energy savings, as well. Some of you may have already been to the Department of Energy's website. There's also a website www.energycodes.gov for information on _____ codes. This is a great opportunity, as well, to partner with your state, to partner with other local governments, counties, and to expand upon existing green building practices. You may want to develop sustainable building ordinances or participate, for instance, in the Department of Energy's builder's challenge.
So this is a really great way to sort of have an impact not only today but have an impact that is long term, tomorrow, next month, next year as you're looking at green buildings and Builder's Challenge and Net Zero homes and buildings. So it's a great opportunity to have a long-term impact.
Next Slide: Energy Distribution Technologies
Michael Myers:
The next category is dealing with energy distribution technologies and these technologies can have a significant impact on energy efficiency. They're showing a range from large systems _____. They can be small and large. They can have small integrated systems can work well. This also includes district heating and cooling systems, co-generation systems, combined heat and power or CHP-type systems. And it's important to recognize that as we see in CHP, that CHP technologies do utilize both electricity and heat produced from a single source and so these systems recover heat that normally would be wasted in an electricity generator and use it to produce steam, hot water, or space heating.
So a lot of the different opportunities here that you can use from energy distribution technologies. Again, this can be a community-type system. It doesn't have to be a city or a county or a local government-type system. So a wide range of opportunities here in this _____ field of technologies.
Next Slide: Material Conservation Programs that Lead to Energy Efficiency
Michael Myers:
The next category is dealing with material conservation programs that lead to energy efficiency and recyclable activities, recycling. The _____ recognized that energy can be saved through these programs by reducing waste. Reducing materials and find new uses for discarded materials can save material resources. They can reduce emissions and, of course, save energy. This may involve developing local, sustainable purchasing policies. You may end up doing business or industrial waste audits. You may develop a construction and demolition materials recycling program. So it's just a wide range of areas dealing with recycling, to find ways to reduce waste which, at the end of the day, reduces emissions and saves energy.
Next Slide: Reduction and Capture of Methane and Greenhouse Gases Generated by Landfills or Similar Waste-Related Sources
Michael Myers:
No. 11. Our next category deals with the reduction and capture of methane and greenhouse gases generated by landfills or other similar waste-related sources. And again, this is fairly self-explanatory, but again, if you have a landfill and this could help you fund a start up and design an operation of a landfill gas recovery system or what they call an LFG-type system, you may also be able to take a look at this and work with your water and waste water treatment center or operational facility. You may be able in some local governments, as well, find ways to combine and collect the gases from a water and waste water distribution facility, combine it to a pipeline that's been collecting landfill gas from a landfill and the combination providing significant energy savings back to that local government. So some opportunities for some creativity here, as well.
Next Slide: Traffic Signals and Street Lighting
Michael Myers:
The next one is, I suspect that many of you have already heard about. You might have had somebody visit you on this already. You might have already changed out your traffic lights, your traffic signals or street lighting, but again, this is why it's here. This is a great energy savings opportunity. Replacing traffic signals with LED or light emitting diodes result in significant energy savings. And again, as I said, many of you cities and counties have already replaced your traffic and pedestrian signals. It's a great energy savings type of project.
This is also an opportunity to look at traffic light synchronization or you can also work with multiple jurisdictions. Recognizing that you may have a main street that goes through your community but it also goes through the adjacent community, so working together provides significant savings for both of you.
Next Slide: Development or Implementation of On-Site Renewable Energy on Government Buildings
Michael Myers:
The next category is one that we've gotten a number of questions on and that is the development or implementation of on-site renewable energy on government buildings, and this is a key phrase, on government buildings. Under this particular project eligible category, Category No. 13, this project does refer to installing renewable energy on a government building. So it can be on the building. It can also be next to the building. It can be to the side of the building. But that particular power must provide power to that particular facility or building.
This project activity is about energy efficiency so we do want to remind everybody if you are putting _____ _____ systems or wind or other types of renewable energy systems on your municipal or local government or county facility, that that building - it's always a good measure to make sure that that building is energy efficient, as well. So we do recommend make those energy efficiency and conservation changes and updates to your equipment to your building before you install the renewable energy.
Next Slide: Other Appropriate Activities as Approved
Michael Myers:
The next activity is No. 14 and this one is just what it says, other appropriate activities as approved. So if you have a different activity and you know - and this is what's crucial - you know it's gonna save jobs. You know it's gonna have a great impact on emissions, you know that it's gonna have a great impact on energy savings and energy efficiency, then you may want to submit it under this particular category if it does not fit under any of the other 13 categories. It is a chance to be innovative. Just recognize, this comes directly from the EISA authorization statute but it's also important to recognize that if you submit under this category, then the Department of Energy must consult with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Transportation, and EPA on approval.
But again, if you have a great idea and you can show the emissions and show the energy savings, this is the opportunity if it does not fit under the other categories. So again, the key thing here is look for areas that have those energy savings improvements.
Next Slide: Other B-1 Attachment -- Project Activity Sheet
Michael Myers:
The next slide is - this is a very important one that we want to talk about here and take a few extra minutes here and this is the B-1 attachment form or the project activity worksheet. There is one activity available per sheet. You will need to complete the attachment B-1 for each of your projects that you submit under any of the potential project eligible categories. You may submit multiple project activity worksheets.
For example, if you plan to develop a residential neighborhood retrofit project or program under project activity No. 5, you would fill out one form. If you plan to complete a traffic street replacement to LED lamps under project activity No. 12, you would then complete a second B-1 attachment project activity worksheet. And let's say that you planned also to put a DV system on your public library. You then submit another third B-1 attachment worksheet under project activity No. 13. Now again, you can also submit just one project activity worksheet, or again, you can submit multiple ones. It's really up to you and what you plan to do in terms of your particular projects.
Now there are a couple of key things that we want to highlight about this worksheet. Again, it's important. Here, it's not very big - that you are restricted. It's one sheet. It's important that you take the time and describe your project, summarize your activities, make sure your narrative is clear and concise, that it's descriptive, and that it's complete.
Remember as you're filling out this information, pick your words carefully. This information will be going back to reviewers. They don't know you. They don't know your project so this is your opportunity to explain your project. You may think it's very straightforward to you but this is you opportunity to lay out your action items and your particular activities that you plan to do under this particular worksheet.
On top of the B-1 attachment, you see a number of lines here and you'll see that there's information not only to put information about who you are and the local government but the proposed benefits, the number of jobs created, energy saved, the GHG emissions and funds leveraged. George has mentioned already that the figure that you can use is that you can use $92,000.00 would equal one job year.
The other good news that we have for you, and many of you have asked questions on this already, is that we do now have a calculator, a benefits calculator, that is provided to you. It's on our website. Again, it's www.eecbg.energy.gov on the bottom of your screen. You go to their site and you can find the benefits calculator. You can use that calculator for the application process only. We'll be getting back to you in terms of emissions and kilowatt information for later for your project time but you can use that calculator to help you fill out this particular form.
So again, it's important that this form. Again, you don't have a lot of space but really be descriptive as much as you possibly can. Lay out if you have funds leveraged, as George mentioned earlier, state it here, mention who you were working with. The key thing here is we want to know enough information to know that your project will be successful.
Next Slide: Benefits Calculator
Michael Myers:
This is the screen of the just a quick sort of screen shot here of the benefits calculator that you'll find on the website. You'll see here all you have to do is enter information in the area that has sort of this green area and it's by each of the project categories. Really what you do is you enter in your total dollar amount that you plan to spend on a particular project category like traffic lights or building retrofits and then enter that information by the state that you're in and this calculator will then calculate the number of jobs, emissions, and kilowatt hour of energy savings that you'll have. And so you can take that information _____ _____ _____.
Next Slide: Attachment D of the FOA
Michael Myers:
So that information is very important and that information then, as you _____ make your B-1 attachment forms can be then used for your next major document that you have, Attachment D of the FOA. Now the FOA, this Attachment D, which is also the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy that was mentioned earlier, is another very important document and there's a couple of things that we want to highlight here for you.
Next Slide: Two Options for Submitting EE&C Strategy
Michael Myers:
First of all, the first option here, Option 1, is you submit your Attachment D or your EE&C strategy at the time of the application. When you submit it at the time of your application, you can still submit project activity No. 1, which is the energy efficiency and conservation eligible strategy. You can do additional planning and community development work. Or Option 2 is that you submit it within 120 days later of your submittal. In this particular case, you would submit your project activity worksheet No. 1, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy project worksheet No. 1, highlight the fact that you're still gonna be working on a strategy, and within 100 days, you would be submitting then your Attachment D.
Now as mentioned earlier, you can still receive up to 250,000.00 for this activity from your allocation, so this is part of your allocation funds. Again, you don't have to ask for 250,000.00. It may be 10,000.00 or 20,000.00. It's whatever is required that you need to have but it does give you a little extra time to figure out what you may want to do in terms of the other eligible categories. Then submit your Attachment D in 120 days.
Next Slide: Staged Disbursement of Funds
Michael Myers:
I just thought I'd mention this a little bit again. If you do not submit your strategy right away, again, you can still receive up to 250,000.00 to develop your strategy. However, if you do submit your strategy, your Attachment D, and your application is approved, then your allocation, if it is under 2 million, you will receive the full amount of your allocation. Again, if you have submitted your Attachment D and your application is approved and your allocation is over 2 million, you will receive 50 percent of your allocation and then the remainder will be awarded after one or more progress reviews. So again, several different options for you.
Next Slide: EE&CS: Your Answers Should Address
Michael Myers:
Let's now go over the Attachment D. Now Attachment D has six questions so I'm gonna go over the first three here right now on what they should address. Under the first question, question No. 1, "What is your proposed Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy?"
It's important to realize here that Attachment D or this question is about the strategy of how you plan to implement the project activities that you have identified in your project activity worksheets. So again, this is a strategy of how you plan to implement your projects that you've identified, not an overall energy or community-wide strategy.
I'll give you an example here. You may answer in some ways like this. This project, for instance, we have a capital improvement energy efficiency retrofit program and this will align with our eligible activities No. 5, our energy efficiency retrofit program, and we plan to implement our eligible activity No. 8, building codes. These two activities fit within our current energy efficiency plan for the city. So again, you're really identifying those particular project activities that you plan to implement (Recording playing on top of speaker) _____ No. 1.
Under question No. 2, "What is your proposed implementation plan?" The proposed implementation is _____ _____.
Again, if somebody has this on their system, please turn this off.
Under question 2, "What is your proposed implementation plan?" Again, this is your implementation plan for your project activities so you really want - you're really gonna have a full page here. This is your opportunity to add additional information that you may not have included on your worksheet. This is your opportunity to explain if you have, for instance, more than one project activity to group them together and say how this is gonna work. Who's gonna manage this? What's the timeline for this process? How am I gonna make this project work or multiple projects work in our community?
Under question No. 3 is, "How are you working with adjacent units of local government?" And this is important. We do want local governments to share information, share lessons learned, reach out to your community, whether it's a local council or community group, but this is an opportunity for you to mention that you are sharing information maybe through a regional council or government. You may have other opportunities, but again, the way to answer this question is sort of lay out in straightforward terms of how you plan to share this information with your adjacent local governments.
So those are the first three questions of the Attachment D. There are six questions total. I'm gonna turn this over to George and George will describe the next questions.
Next Slide: EE&CS: Your Answers Should Address (continued)
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike, and I will _____ _____ _____. Somebody's on there talking. That's okay. I'm gonna make these next few slides very quick. We're noticing the questions that are coming in here. The good news is Charlie has answers for you and he's writing them down feverishly.
Gerald asked can money be used to update assets that are leased? Karen wants to know about salaries for employees that are working on sustainable codes and salaries for city employees. Christine wants description guidance on technical consulting expertise. We've got all that coming to you here just in a few minutes, so thanks for holding on.
No. 4, "How will you share your information with your state?" Very, very important. Combine with your state where you can. Since state energy plans went in early, we've had local governments tell us that their state energy program plans are not available to them. They can't be available through DOE on the web yet because they're not reviewed and not finalized but we would urge you to call your state energy office and create a strong partnership with them. Call your state energy office director and ask them what their state energy plan did. How did they design it? What areas are they focusing on? They will gladly give you that in most cases, so pick up the phone and call them because it won't be available on DOE's website for some time.
"Describe" - question No. 5 - "how the project sustains benefits beyond the Recovery Act period." Again, it's about leveraging people and dollars and going way into the out years if you can do it. Projects that have sustained benefits will be reviewed positively and quickly. You can count on that.
Question 6 and this is about transparency and accountability for the American taxpayer and, again, in the metrics, make sure you evaluate and have a strong metric story. Use software and software platforms that you can get easily and inexpensively like - again, not an endorsement - FORTEL Solutions up in Maine has a software they use and local governments use. Just find a software program that tracks this and you're gonna be responsible for reporting to the state and the state's gonna be responsible for reporting to DOE, obviously.
Next slide, please.
Next Slide: Limitations on the Use of Funds
George Burmeister:
Limitations on use of the funds. I wanted to draw your attention to the last bullet. States may not use less than 60% of their allocation for sub-grants for local governments that are ineligible due to their population. So there's a lot of money that's gonna be coming your way and the cap on the revolving loan funds, the $250,000.00, the second bullet you see under "Local Governments and Tribes," we're working on a legislative fix for that. States don't have a cap but local governments do. That may be increased but until you here it from DOE about that, just assume that there will be a $250,000.00 cap still in place.
Next slide, please.
Next Slide: NEPA -National Environmental Policy Act
George Burmeister:
All energy efficiency conservation block grant programs, they fall under NEPA and obviously if you have a very extensive, very complex project, that could delay the orb process so have NEPA in mind as you're proposing.
Next Slide: Frequently Asked Questions
George Burmeister:
And frequently asked questions, yes, on the Davis Bacon Act. I mentioned the 92,000.00 that OMB said will constitute one job year. The benefit calculator, Mike had a slide up earlier, and by the way, the slides will be available on the website after this. We've got some questions about that.
Allowable uses of renewable technologies. Yes, they have to be connected to a government building. Mike came back from Golden and stated that if a school is owned by the local government, yes, you can put those solar on that school or those schools. And yes, you'll be able to amend your strategy after you receive your award, absolutely. And that will be hopefully a very expedited process for you.
Next, please.
Next Slide: Start Now!!!
George Burmeister:
Finally, start now. Start planning activities. We're only ten days out, ten days away from the deadline. If you have pressing issues, registration issues with CCR or Dun and Bradstreet or FedConnect, call us, email us and let us know because that could take ten days so we want to make sure you get that done in the next couple of days. And knock yourself out. Go and evaluate as many options as you can, build your partnerships, and we're ten days out so good luck.
Mike, please.
Michael Myers:
Well, thank you, George, and absolutely, as George mentioned, the timeline, the application date is coming up on June 25th. We mentioned already that you already should have the FOA. I've talked to many local governments already. I know that many of you are already working on this application, as well. Again, if you have your application is done and you feel that it is complete, the Department of Energy will certainly accept your application ahead of time, so feel free to send it in early.
The only thing I will mention right off the bat is, again, make sure it's complete. You just heard us talk about the B1 attachment forms and the Attachment D and the planning document, the energy strategy documents. It is important to lay out as much information as you can in those limited spaces and it is important to put in information on how you plan to implement, how you plan to make this work through. Again, you will have a reviewer looking over your documents. They again, don't know you and you really are trying to sell them to explain to them what you are trying to do. So even if you think your project is pretty straightforward and simple, that's okay. Add some additional information and that will be just fine. We'll be happy. Good added information is a good idea.
Next Slide: Bookmark Program Site: www.eecbg.energy.gov!
Michael Myers:
So as you move forward, it's important to always look at this particular website. Again, we've highlighted it a number of times, again, www.eecbg.energy.gov. This website is continually being updated. Lots of new information is being put on this website. This is a site you want to go to. There's several different things here that'll be of interest. One, again, if you don't have the FOA, you can come into this site and download your FOA, the FOA. You can also take a look at some sample Attachment D, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. We have samples for cities, counties, tribal governments, and states. Those samples are up on this site, the Solution Center, so if you're still looking at how to do Attachment D, definitely we encourage you, we want you to take a look at the website and look at the examples that are currently posted.
In addition, we do have examples of the B1 attachment form. We have just a few, but we have for, I think, the first four project activities. They are also posted under the Solutions Center under Additional Resources, so you can take a look at some of the sample B1 attachment forms for project activities No. 1, 2, 3, and actually we have two samples for No. 3, and No. 4 on financial incentives is also posted on this website.
A couple of other key items I want to highlight is - you can see this on the upper left-hand corner of your screen of the website - information on future webcasts and webinars that will be - is posted here where you can register and we have information on the - on questions and answers. We have received literally hundreds of questions. The Department of Energy has answered those questions. They are posted. So if you have a question on your application on the FedConnect process, on your project activity, what is eligible, we encourage you to come to the website, take a look at the current list of FAQ's. Your question may already have been asked and answered, so feel free to take a look at the site. And again, we'll be taking your questions and we'll start that Q&A process here just shortly and continue to submit your questions through the lower right-hand corner.
Next Slide: Helpful Reading
Michael Myers:
There is some additional helpful websites and information for you. Again, we've talked about the Funding Opportunity Announcement and where you can download that information.
As I mentioned, we have examples of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. This is the direct website for that.
FedConnect Primer. If you have some questions on the FedConnect, this is a great primer. You can go to this particular site. There's a PDF document that does provide you some step-by-step information and instructions on FedConnect.
The website's Solutions Center. This Solutions Center has information and resources about each project activity, some of the test resources, what works, information is provided, information from a number of national laboratories, states, other local governments is listed under the Solutions Center.
As I just mentioned, again, the frequently asked questions. Again, check that out if you have a question and, again, somebody may have already asked it and you can find your answer.
Next Slide: Resources for Grantees
Michael Myers:
Other resources, we've talked about this a little bit. Future webinars, look for those. There will be additional webinars on different technologies. There'll be a webinar next week on the benefits calculator that we mentioned earlier, and so there will be sort of a step-by-step process on the benefits calculator next week. I believe that tentative schedule is for the 18th, so again, check the website to register.
And again, continue to check the Solutions Center for information on a wide range of information, the technologies and projects that other local governments have implemented.
Next Slide: Questions?
Michael Myers:
And you may have questions, and as you move forward and you have questions or if you've checked the FAQ's and you can't find what you need, feel free to send your question in an email to eecbg@netl.doe.gov or contact the EERE Information Center.
We really do want to try and answer your questions. We're gonna try to answer the questions you've been submitting to us right now, but again, if something happens or your question isn't answered today, send your question in email, again, to eecbg@netl.doe.gov.
Well, that takes us through the project eligible categories, the Attachment D and some of the other information and the benefits calculator. This is time to start answering your questions that you've been submitting to us during the past 45 minutes. So at this point in time, I'm gonna turn this back over to Charlie Hemmeline and we're gonna see about the first question. Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Sure. Thank you much, Mike. Again, thanks to everyone for joining us. I'm just gonna start with a couple of kind of the FAQ's that I've heard and seen here through today and have come up in several of the questions so far in the Q&A window here.
First up maybe most importantly, a lot of folks have concerns about losing the allocation that they've received if for some reason we need to get back to them with more information or something that is in their application is determined to be not eligible. And we just want to assure you that we're gonna work with you to make sure that your application gets through and includes all eligible activities and that we're not going to turn your money over to someone else at the first sign of a project not being eligible. So that we will review the submissions and likely need to get back with some folks for more information to complete some paperwork and in some cases maybe redirect some activities, but in all cases, that will be done with an eye towards helping you put forward an application to receive your full allocation.
The second thing, and it's been - it was mentioned on the slide there in the FAQ's, but what happens if folks get some way down the path of executing their activities and they find they need to make a shift because of a new strategy, a new activity, or some lessons learned. We just want to make it clear that the awards can be amended if necessary if in the discovery of what you're doing you find something that makes you change your strategy or you get some new information. We try to make it so that's as seamless as possible and if there's a major change in strategy, we can look at what we need to do. Obviously, you're gonna learn through this process and so we want to be flexible to that.
And as Mike mentioned about the expected benefits calculator, we do have some new information there on our website. We have a webinar that will be scheduled for next week and details of that will be available very soon on our website, so for most of the questions about job calculations and GHG _____ and calculations, please tune into that. We'll go over the guidance. We'll go over the calculator. It's pretty straightforward. The intent there is to give you something kind of standard to use to make your application. It's not going to be used as a judgment on your activities specifically. You'll be reporting on the specifics that come out of your projects but we just wanted to have a standard way to put that in the application, so we'll get into that next week.
So getting into some of your specific questions, I'm just gonna tag team in here with George and do some MC'ing, so we'll give it a start.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Again, this is George Burmeister. Kathy, a very important question. "For purchase of alternative fuel vehicles, hybrids, CNG, etc., is it true that the grant will only cover the cost differential for the cost of the gasoline fueled vehicle versus cost of the alternative fueled vehicle?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Yes, that is correct. The judgment across alternative fueled vehicles and, as it turns out, in building retrofits, will be that it's the incremental cost associated with making the activity green or energy efficient that will be paid for. So the difference in taking a vehicle to alt fuel, the difference in making a building energy efficient or getting the certification. Those are the expenses that'll be authorized but not the full capital cost of making the purchase.
George Burmeister:
That's a great question and there are a half a dozen questions similar to that that have come up over the last half hour, so hope that helps. That's brand new information.
Jennifer asks, "Is a sample grant agreement available for recipients to initiate legal review processes at the local level?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
Good question. We have on the website that was mentioned, the Solutions Center off of the block grant web page, a variety of sample documents that have been discussed here today, the model strategies, the EECS, as well as some project activity sheet examples. We do not have a full grant application package for you but between those documents as well as the process slides, so I want to refer again to the webinar that was delivered on how to go through the application process. There's a set of slides on our website under the past webinar section that really take you through the forms in detail and so between those two things, I think there's a lot of good information out there.
George Burmeister:
Thank you. Jack asked, "Are new roofs using reflective material to reduce heat loss and gain eligible for the energy efficiency conservation funds?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
Absolutely. That fits kind of into the category of building retrofit so equipment that is intended to reduce the energy load of a building is certainly eligible and is, in fact, one of the primary intents of this activity is to allow local governments to invest in things that will help them save energy, so that's absolutely true.
George Burmeister:
Thank you. Getting back to one of the ones I mentioned earlier, Gerald asked, "Can money be used to update assets that cities are currently leasing?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good one. So the intent of the block grant is to help cities cover kind of their entire jurisdiction, so they are allowed to undertake audit, retrofit programs, building efficiency upgrades for all sectors, so not only their own buildings but commercial, residential, other buildings as well as they see fit, whatever helps them reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and energy use throughout. So if they happen to be leasing the buildings that they're occupying, that's certainly eligible.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Karen asked, "Can funds be used for city employees who are gonna be researching sustainable _____ and can it be used for city employees who are working on the proposals?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
They can, so the personnel fees are - we consider those to be kind of a part of the project, so in line with whatever those employees will be working on, we presume those will be the projects that you will be describing in your attachments as to how you're gonna spend the funds. And certainly many of those activities will entail some personnel costs, either consultant or city staff, and that is allowable for you to use your own staff and increase staff time to take on what will obviously be an expanded set of activities. There are, as mentioned in the slides, some limitations on the administrative fees and costs associated with this work. That's largely confined to the reporting, the tracking, the administration of this award and not necessarily a limit on the staff time that can be used to execute the activities that are the content of your application. So that can just show up in those activity sheets that way.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Monica asked, "What are the maximum amount of funds that a local government can ask for?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good question. Let's go straight to the point. How much can we get? So in the FOA itself in Attachment A, there's an actual allocation of the funding that was given to all eligible entities at the local level and so that was done by formula based on population, energy use, and some other factors. And so that was set based on the total amount of funding that we had for the entire program and so each entity has a number that they've been assigned and they should use as the basis for their application. I suppose it is possible for you to ask for less than the amount, but I presume that most will ask for the full amount that they have.
I'll go ahead and use this as an opportunity to talk about the competitive piece that has come up a few times. We are, additionally, working on a separate pot of resources that will be available competitively to the same entities that will be receiving the block grant funding and will be the same types of activities, obviously reducing emissions, improving conservation, the intent of the program, but instead of awarded by formula, they'll be merit reviewed in an open solicitation. That's under development right now. I can't deliver a specific date just yet but I can tell you it will be set up such that formula entities as well as non-formula entities will be able to apply for portions of that funding. So entities - counties that are under the 200,000 and cities under 35,000 in population, part of those competitive funds will be set aside for those entities and other monies will be available for all of the block grant recipients.
So that is coming soon. Keep an eye out for that and we'll have more information on the actual funding opportunity announcement for that, deadlines, and merit criteria, which will be somewhat different, obviously, because it's going to be competitive as opposed to by formula.
George Burmeister:
There's a three-part question. Actually, Mike and I get asked this all the time but - from local governments - but, "What is DOE going to do if a local government does not apply for all of its money?" We get asked, "What happens to our funds? What are you gonna do with it?" I've been told by certain people at DOE that it may go toward the competitive. It may go into a separate pool. Is there any consensus around what you may do with it?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Frankly, I don't think we have a complete consensus on that. Yeah, we'll need to see what the results are. As you know, the applications are due in roughly ten days on the 25th and we will see who applies and who does not and how that looks. Again, as I said before, we expect some applications to need a bit of help to come up to completeness and some activities may need to be redirected. There won't be a quick trigger on spinning money to other activities. We will be looking at the money to go to the intended entities for some time until it becomes absolutely clear that those entities will not - either do not want or cannot receive that money and additional guidance will be coming out from the department at that time as to the decision made. So I'd say no clear answer yet.
George Burmeister:
Thank you very much, Charlie. We're scrolling down to another question here and we're gonna have Evelyn. Evelyn asked, "Is the retrofitting of a modern, energy-efficient HVAC system to a city government building with an outdated 28-year-old system eligible for this grant? Retrofitting with modern HVAC system is expected to reduce energy costs in the city building by 15 to 25 percent. Is it eligible?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
Absolutely. Good question, very much in line with the building retrofit project category. As we mentioned, we really encourage highly leveraged activities, so setting up programs that can fund retrofits over time and really pay off, make an investment over time. But certainly in terms of eligibility, if there is a project that you have that is a capital investment in an efficiency appliance, HVAC or otherwise, that will improve the energy performance of that building, that is eligible under building retrofit.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie.
Michael Myers:
Charlie or George?
Speaker:
Sure.
Michael Myers:
I saw a question here and maybe it follows up on this in that there was a question that said, "If we submit a project let's say to do retrofits or do a methane gas project, another project activity, can we still send in a project worksheet to do an energy efficiency strategy for a community?" And the answer is yes, so you are definitely eligible to send in a project worksheet to say you're gonna do a building retrofit, an HVAC retrofit like we just heard, or do any other project and still submit a project worksheet No. 1, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, and work on an energy strategy or efficiency strategy for your community. So you can do both. It's acceptable.
Charlie Hemmeline:
Great. Thanks, Mike.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. Question from Jacqueline. "What SF424 form is actually required? Is it A, B, or C?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
We like to play the shell game here. Pick your poison. No, actually the guidance we've been giving folks is SF424A will be sufficient for that. There are multiple forms but A should work for most of the purposes here _____ _____ _____.
George Burmeister:
Okay. Thank you, Charlie. Brad asked, "Are communities less than 35,000 population who go through the state required to complete an EECS?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a great question. That answer is no, so only entities who are directly receiving the funds are required to submit an EECS to access those funds. And so for entities - communities less than 35,000, cities under 35,000, counties under 200,000, you are also receiving block grant funds but those funds will be channeled through the state and the state is required to submit a plan for those funds on your behalf with the EECS with a plan for how they'll be distributing those funds. And as Mike discussed earlier, they're required to pass through release 60 percent of those funds directly. So you'll be receiving the funds but you will not be required to actually fill out the EECS.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie.
Charlie Hemmeline:
We're starting to get some repeats here, which is great. Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
George Burmeister:
Here's one from Phyllis. "Madison County will be getting a direct allocation. Will there be any grant management workshops that will be mandatory and need to be budgeted for?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good question. We currently are not envisioning an all-hands kind of in-person meeting among recipients. We'll certainly keep a strong communication out and we will almost certainly maintain a webinar series such as this to make sure that we have timely information to you. But at this time, there's not envisioned to be kind of an in-person meeting that would require you to travel for the purposes of administering the grant. Now travel could certainly be a part for some of the executing the particular activities and I think you should pay attention to that in terms of the costs associated with executing your strategy, but at this point, I don't think you would need to do that on behalf of DOE for administrative purposes.
George Burmeister:
Again, please if anybody that's on the webinar please put your phones on hold. We'd appreciate it for everybody. Thank you, again.
We've got a - I hope you can hear me - a kind of an out-of-the-box question here. Kevin says, "Will there be a website that will review or list successful projects created that everyone can use to reference for 'out-of-the-box' ideas?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Oh, good question. I'll just use that as an opportunity to redirect folks to our own Solutions Center. We're trying to build that up over time. We've attempted so far to pull good projects and examples from a lot of our partnering organizations and from the communities that we're aware of that have done really good things and so hopefully that will be a resource to you for some ideas. And certainly over time as we receive the submissions from entities to be able to publicize the good work that's going on there, and so please look to visit that on a regular basis.
Michael Myers:
Just as a follow up to what Charlie mentioned, I think that's a great question. We certainly want to highlight great stories and projects. It's a part of the presence of accountability and transparence of this and we want to share that information. It's also part of the reason under the Attachment D, the energy, efficiency and conservation strategy, it's why we want to know how do you plan to work with other local or adjacent communities, local governments, how do you plan to share information with your state, and of course how do you plan to share additional information back to the Department of Energy. So as those projects move forward, we certainly want to post those - that information and share those great results that you have.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. Here's one from Nicky. Mike, you can answer this. "Can you give an example of another appropriate activity that you have heard a city doing?" Mike, _____ _____ above code, new residential construction programs where they're rewarding builders that build 15 to 20 percent above code with non-monetary and special incentives like mayoral breakfast, faster plan check, expedited planning, and monetary benefits. Do you have some more examples for people out there that would fit under other appropriate activity that aren't really defined in the 14?
Michael Myers:
There's a couple of things to think about. First of all, we really want to encourage you to certainly look at the eligible categories 1 through 13 and see if your project does fit into one of those categories. In addition, there are some projects you may have that may actually be eligible for other types of grants that are also eligible through the Department of Energy. So there are some projects that, while they may be other - some other types of renewable energy types of technologies, for instance, and battery type activities and development, are actually part of other types of grants and allocations being made through the agency. But you may have something that deals with transportation, or as George mentioned, something that goes up and beyond or a combination of transportation and green building initiatives, something that doesn't quite fit perhaps and you want to look at that. But again, I would encourage strongly to take a look at the first 13 categories.
There was also a question offered before and that is what happens if I have a project that sort of crosses over multiple project activities? As an example, you have a neighborhood retrofit program in which you're doing audits and retrofit. It's really a combination. It's really up to the local government how you want to submit that. You may want to break it up and submit a project worksheet under audits and another one under the retrofit category or you may combine it and submit it under one project worksheet, let's say going under project activity No. 5 for building retrofits. It's really up to the local government and if you see this as a project or a program that you may have that weaves these things together and you can show how all this works together and has an impact, then that's the story that we want to see. That's the information that we want to see on the project worksheet.
Again, explain what you're doing; how you're gonna do it; how the audit process, for instance, works with the retrofit; how the retrofit process may work with a funding mechanism, as well; who's doing this work in a sense of how you're gonna structure it. If it makes sense to put it on to one worksheet under one category, then it's up to the local government to make that decision. So I know that that is information beyond the initial question but I wanted to answer the other question, as well.
George Burmeister:
Mike, that's why we asked ya. We have a question from Phyllis. Phyllis asked Charlie, "What if you were doing a retrofit at the courthouse that has different activities, including caulk, windows, changing out light grids, etc.? Is this one sheet or two?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a great question, Phyllis. We get that one actually a lot about for projects that have multiple components or if you're doing multiple buildings kind of in one retrofit program across the city, for instance. Do you have to break that down into specific project activity sheets and really do each thing separately? And that answer is no. You can combine that into one project description, one project activity sheet for what you would kind of call the project.
So if you're retrofitting the courthouse and you have several activities to do multiple things, like you say, the windows, the lights, that can be one project. And for others who are contemplating doing a city-wide energy saving performance contract that may handle 20 buildings, is that do I really need to have every building's activity be its own activity sheet, and that answer is no, just one for the program _____. The program, your approach, the number of buildings you think you'll hit, the expected activities in your approach for that, and that would be sufficient.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Here's one that's unrelated to energy efficiency, rather the spirit of the legislation. Let's go ahead. We get asked this similar question a bunch. This is John asked, "Our town plans on restoring on a barn complex on property purchased for open space. The building would host environmental classes. Our plans for the restoration would include geothermal and solar portable tank and other energy saving items." Is it an eligible project or not, Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
So as described in some of the previous slides, we've tried to incorporate some more guidance on the use of renewable energy. Obviously if the category 13 there is fairly explicit about using renewable energy for government facilities and so in that case, if it's a government-owned building and the renewable energy either geothermal or solar or photovoltaic and it feeds the building, then it's perfectly eligible. In other uses, there needs to be a very tight integration with efficiency activities and so having the core of your program activity or the building's activity be an efficiency measure is kind of the intent of the legislation.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Here's an enforcement related question. Christine asked, "If during the report period our initial projected benefits fall short of the actual, is there going to be a penalty? Will we be dinged in an audit?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good question. I think I'm probably gonna have to take a to be determined on that. Certainly the reporting that will happen will be quarterly and you will be actually able to report on the actuals from your activity as opposed to the expected benefits either from the calculator or from your own methodology that you use to apply for the funds. And obviously we expect that things won't be exactly as you predicted, some better, some worse, and we will have to make a determination as to how much worse an activity has to be before any kind of auxiliary action is taken where perhaps it turns out to be not an eligible use at all because you haven't conducted the activity that you said you were gonna conduct. But certainly we'll issue some more guidance on any remedial activity that needs to happen and I wouldn't worry immediately about if the energy savings you see isn't always exactly what you'd expect. We understand that there are mitigating circumstances that may impede your expected benefits.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie, and I hope everybody heard quarterly report. You mentioned quarterly. There were rumors going around that the block grant was gonna require weekly reporting and we run into that every week, no pun intended. There is not a weekly reporting requirement so please do not think that.
We're scrolling down. Here's from Daniel. "If indoor swimming pools are owned, Charlie, by the local government, are they eligible for energy retrofits or are they still ineligible?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
To your question, Daniel, I think they're still gonna be ineligible. Both the regulation and the legislation is fairly straightforward on that, that pools are not an eligible category of activity and there's no specification for the ownership. So I think that one is just gonna be ineligible, unfortunately.
George Burmeister:
Thank you very much.
Charlie Hemmeline:
Hopefully a lot of folks are getting their questions answered. We're scrolling through several similar questions in terms of being able to amend the award, the use of personnel for the funds.
George Burmeister:
Here. We're gonna go to Kevin. Kevin asked, "Will the website have a section -" this is the DOE website, I assume, the Solutions website - "have a section for agencies to find help or services to accomplish audits, engineers, or manufacturers of equipment?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good question, Kevin. Unfortunately, I don't think we're gonna be able to do that. We've not put ourselves in the line of formally directing folks to resources in that regard other than peer-to-peer resources in national associations that can be helpful in referring you to other resources. In terms of actually getting the audits done, finding consultants, executing projects, DOE is not putting out any specific recommendations or lists or call sheets that cities can use. Hopefully, through local means, regional resources that you might have, networking with other cities, we certainly encourage you to network with national and regional energy efficiency organizations that may be helpful. We encourage all of that but in terms of specific companies, we're not planning that at this time.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Here's one from Debbie. "Is this particular webinar being repeated again anytime soon?"
Charlie Hemmeline:
Excellent, thank you. Hopefully that's a good thing. Right now, we don't have another planning and strategy development webinar that's this particular one scheduled right now. With the due date coming up in about ten days, we figured that most folks were kind of in their home stretch, but we are certainly open to it if we hear that there's a need and may continue to hold them after the due date as necessary. And certainly I've mentioned the following webinars on the benefits calculator. We're gonna continue to hold our weekly application process webinar to help you with FedConnect and the forms and knowing exactly what to submit.
And we also have, I think I haven't mentioned this, coming up this coming Monday on innovative energy efficiency financing approaches, so performance contracting, municipal energy financing, really digging into some of the topics associated with some of this work. And that series will continue on beyond the due date because it will hopefully be useful in helping cities actually execute some of these projects. So in terms of this particular planning one, that answer's a maybe, but on some of the other topics, absolutely.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. Here's one that's potentially confusing that we'll clear up. "You mentioned for a city of less than 35,000 people, they are to rely on the state to submit the EECS paperwork for them. Who specifically do we contact to get that ball rolling?" We didn't say the state is going to submit your EECS paperwork for you. It's actually you submit your paperwork to the state if you are less than 35,000 to go after that other 60 percent of the money. But Charlie, who do they contact in the state energy office to get it rolling?
Charlie Hemmeline:
So we would surely recommend that you look at the NASEO, the National Association of State Energy Official's website, to get contact info for all of the state energy offices and find your particular liaison. The state is required to apply for that funding on behalf of all of the entities under 35,000, so it's not that they're gonna submit a separate set of paperwork for your individual community. It's that they have to cover all of the municipalities under the threshold population and so they're submitting a plan to us on the same June 25th deadline. They'll be submitting a plan to us as to how they're gonna do that and so some states are gonna go with their own formula award, kind of like what we're doing where they just look at population and energy use and cut you a check. Others are gonna be doing a competitive award process within their state to say we're gonna open up a solicitation and allow the communities under the threshold population to apply.
And so every state is gonna do that differently and we'll know when they apply and they should be publicizing their approach to you as soon as they've made that determination and received the funds. And so you can be proactive and get in touch with them and see what their planned approach is, make an introduction, make a connection, but the responsibility for accessing the funds and making them available to you is on them.
George Burmeister:
Yeah, that's a follow-up response is also we urge major and minor cities, if you have a transit oriented development project that you want to see funded through DOE, go ahead and call your state energy office before this deadline and see if it's a part of their plan, as well, and promote and push them to do that in your state. There's nothing wrong with that.
Michael Myers:
George, this is Mike and I have a question here, as well, I believe, from Christine that said, "Can retrofit funds be used for private buildings and not just government buildings?" And the answer is yes. Again, these funds, these allocations can be used for community-wide. They're not just for your own municipal buildings or county facilities or tribal facilities. They can be used for other types of developments, buildings, operations throughout the community. So again, wide options are available to you.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. We're scrolling down. We've got ten more minutes. Here's Larry. Larry asked, "On working with consultants, does the local government need to go through an official RFQ process to select a consultant to apply for the 250,000.00, and if so, are there any requirements the local government needs to do to satisfy advertisement criteria?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Thank you. I'll take a crack at this and then, Mike, feel free to jump in if you have some additional thoughts. Right now, DOE doesn't have any particular guidance on how you choose your consultants or your technical help. As with kind of like I mentioned that we're not providing a list of qualified contractors or setting up any kind of referral service, we're also not imposing any particular set of requirements about how you do that in terms of an official RFQ or how that happens. So you're free to sign on the assistance that you're aware of and know can help you.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie. A follow-up question we get asked all the time, "What kind of public involvement do you require? What does DOE require? Do I have to go through my county board of supervisors? Do I have to go through my city council?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
That's a good question. Obviously in terms of good public involvement, we certainly encourage that and one of the key eligible project categories is planning strategic development and hopefully that process would include a healthy dose of public outreach and public input processes. But in terms of choosing the activities that you will spend your funds on, there's no specific requirement from us as to how that decision-making process happens, what level of public involvement. In that regard, we're not specifying.
In terms of the application, and some of this is represented in the application process slides from the previous webinar I mentioned, there is a designated entity within the city that will be allowed to actually apply for the funds, and so you will need to assure to us that the person submitting your package is the one who is authorized to do so, that we don't get three applications from the same city all asking for the money and so that, there's a specification on that. But again, in terms of how you've reached out to the public and how you've made your decisions and the process for that, we're not specifying.
Michael Myers:
And Charlie and George, we have a question from Karen that said, "Do we need to reference on the B1 attachment form that we used the EECBG calculator or some other method?" And the answer is no. It's gonna be self-explanatory to the reviewers. Again, these numbers, the emissions and the energy savings, we recognize these are estimates and the calculator that's provided on the website is for your convenience. And so we know we have lots of local governments that are trying to figure this out and if there's an easier way for local governments to put information in here, we recognize this is a first round. There will be additional guidance on the benefits. Again, we have a webinar next week that will be on the benefits calculator, as well. Additional guidance will be coming in the future, as well.
But on the B1 attachment form, if you have information that you know what the _____ are and you have a great idea what the energy savings are because you've already worked with a consultant or an energy firm or some other entity, then surely use those numbers. You can even mention that in your B1 attachment that says, "The energy savings calculated for this is - we got this in this manner." But you don't have to but it's great to add that information that really tells the reviewer how you got there. Otherwise, just fill in the information, use the calculator. There's no reason in the B1 form to say, "I used the calculator to form this." Use the B1 narrative space to provide as much information as possible on your project and be descriptive and complete as possible.
And back to you, George.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. We've got time for probably five or six more questions. This is a great one from Pete. DOE is asked all the time about who can apply and under what conditions. "Is a university eligible under the non-formula competitive funding? If not, can the university receive funds under an award to the non-formula eligible city?" Great question. Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
On the competitive one, we're gonna have to kind of punt that one. Like I said, it's under development and so when that comes out, we'll have a clear explanation of who the intended entities are, who can apply as well as kind of a description of the eligible partnering arrangements and encourage partnering arrangements that we're including in that. In terms of the actual block grant formula and non-formula allocations by way of the state, the cities and the states can sub-award, subcontract to other entities at their discretion to either administer programs, to run activities. Universities are certainly available to receive some of those sub awards at the discretion of the receiving community. So they're not ineligible but it is up to the entity to decide if they want to do that.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Charlie.
Michael Myers:
We have just a few more minutes left for questions and I did see one from Daniel. I just wanted to mention it quickly and turn it over, is - because we've heard this. The question is, "Is it just one Attachment D for then all of the project activities?" And the answer is yes. You submit one Attachment D, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, those six questions. There's limited space, but yes, you just need one of those for all your projects.
So if you have just one project activity, then you're highlighting your strategy of how you're meeting that one project activity. If you've identified, let's say, four different unique projects and four different project worksheets, then on your Attachment D, still submit just one Attachment D, but in that you would highlight how you plan to implement those particular four project activities. So again, just one Attachment D per application. Good question. George?
George Burmeister:
Thanks, Mike. Here's one from Brett, another good one from Brett. "It's my understanding that zoos have been excluded from EECBG funding. Our zoo is a city facility. We're considering several energy efficiency retrofits on zoo buildings that would otherwise meet EECBG requirements. Are these projects ineligible?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
Unfortunately, yes. Like the pools, zoos have been called out specifically as ineligible for award under this program and we have not seen any clarification on that or anything that would say that some types of zoos or some examples are eligible. Unfortunately, I think they're categorically excluded.
George Burmeister:
Thank you. That's not the only question on zoos, either. We're getting a few.
Charlie Hemmeline:
Yeah, unfortunately it's - we're just gonna scroll to the very last ones here. _____ _____ what we can get in the final _____ is -
Michael Myers:
Just real quick, we have a question here, as well. This also gets back to Attachment D and the funding. We had a question, I think, through Leeann. "Can we use funds to do not just energy efficiency strategy but other project activities?" And the answer is yes. So again, if you do other project activities, you need to submit those other project activity worksheets and complete a form, but yes, you can do multiple other projects.
And again, we just have just a few more minutes and we'll take probably just a couple of questions before we wrap up. Back to you, George and Charlie.
George Burmeister:
Thank you, Mike. I'll give one more question to Charlie here in a minute as he's scrolling through and then I'll turn it over to you, our master MC. While Charlie's scrolling, I would urge everybody to, if you're not registered, to please get registered and if you have any difficulties in the next couple of days, since we're nearing the deadline, call us and we'll help you get registered. I want to make sure everybody that wants to get registered gets registered.
And he's still scrolling. We've got some repetition here. Here we go. Here's one from John, last question, and then we'll give it to Mike to sign off. "Where is information about hybrid vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles grant eligibility located in the FOA and/or Solutions Center?" Charlie?
Charlie Hemmeline:
I think some of that info is actually being updated in real time right about now. We've just recently gotten some clarifications on our approach on that and so keep an eye on the FAQ portion of the block grant web page that has some of these clarifying questions on eligibility and our take on certain things. And certainly I want to encourage everyone to register with FedConnect to sign up as a vendor. There you will be able to read all of the Q&A's that have been posted so far. I think we're up over 1,000 at this point, which is good and bad. Good there's a lot of material there for good content but you may need to do some scrolling to find yours. So hopefully you'll be able to see similar questions that have been asked and if you don't see one that's relevant to you, please feel free to submit and we will get to it as soon as we can.
It's certainly in our interest to get you good information so that everyone is prepared to submit complete, good quality applications that meet all the requirements and that are fully eligible so that we can get you the money as soon as possible. That is certainly our intent. I just want to reinforce that, that we're working nonstop here to make sure that we get this money out to you as quickly as possible. I can tell you that at the highest levels, from the secretary and the vice president and the president on down, there is an extreme interest in engaging with local governments and making sure that you have the tools to access this money, to get it in a streamlined way, and to execute these projects as effectively as possible, and so helping out with this process is only the beginning.
Like I said, we're gonna follow on with more webinars on specific topics. As we see what people apply for, we will certainly be designing other webinars. Say when 500 cities are all tackling the same topic, we're gonna try to spend some more resources out on those and get good info out there to you. So we'll be with you for the duration of this program, but for now hopefully everybody's got good info and can submit some good applications coming up. So Mike, I'll turn it back over to you.
Michael Myers:
Well, thank you, Charlie, and thank you, George, and thank you, again, for everybody that participated today. We'll just leave you again, as you prepare your applications and you prepare your B1 attachment forms, your project activity worksheets, again, be as descriptive as much as you can. Lay out some of this information that you plan to do. It's gonna be very helpful to the reviewers to know that you have a good idea of what you plan to do and have a means and a process to implement your project. That will only help the time for everybody to review and hopefully get your funds to you as fast as possible.
Best of luck on your projects and thank you for participating today. Have a great day. Thank you, again.