Microsoft Hohm: Finding Cost Savings for Homeowners

Across America homeowners are increasingly interested in ways to understand and manage their home energy costs. Building on this momentum, Microsoft recently unveiled its Hohm software , which allows homeowners to understand the energy use of their homes, compare to neighbors, and discover opportunities to save money on utility bills by lowering their energy usage. Unlike Google’s Power Meter which uses actual information garnered from utility smart meters and energy monitoring devices, Hohm takes information from a few simple questions – including your zip code, the size of your home, and the year it was built – to provide an overview of annual energy usage and estimated energy costs. Hohm then generates a free energy report based on your answers. The report can help identify ways to make your home more energy efficient, estimating what your potential cost savings may be by investing in efficiency improvements. The Hohm service is free, though it only connects automatically to actual electricity usage data for 4 million customers on the West Coast as of yet. Homes outside this service are receive energy reports drawing on averages rather than property-specific information. According to the Hohm database, a typical home in Berea, Kentucky can save up to $1,736 each year—achieved mostly through reduction in heating costs, likely from better insulation and efficient windows. The potential for improvements in efficiency and cost is particularly great throughout Central Appalachia. This map shows that Central Appalachia in particular, and the Southeast more generally, has some of the...

Central Appalachian Schools Lose in Education Funding Formula...

Coming reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act has brought up serious issues with the formula the federal government uses to allocate monies under Title I, the program that targets financial support to high-poverty schools. Inequity in the formula disadvantages poor rural school districts including, as it turns out, Central Appalachian school districts. Marty Strange of the Rural School and Community Trust explains the issue in an article in the Daily Yonder. The weighting system used to determine funding gives more allocation per Title I student to larger districts than to smaller ones even if they have the same (or often even a smaller) share of students who are disadvantaged. Among the 25 rural school districts that lose the most education funds because of this formula, several are in Central Appalachia: Floyd County, Kentucky; Cocke County, Tennessee; Campbell County, Tennessee; and Knox County, Kentucky. These districts each lost between $300,000 and $400,000 in education funding in the most recent year due to the formula. And as Strange notes, the rural districts that are the biggest losers are often in states that chronically underfund education. Strange’s analysis is contained in a report for the Formula Fairness Campaign. About Jason BaileyJason Bailey is Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy and serves as Research and Policy Director of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development. Since 1998 he has worked as a researcher addressing economic issues in the Commonwealth. Jason has served as a member of the Governor's...

Building and Birthing Human and Social Capital in Central Appalachia...

When people begin to feel like and be considered investors in community building, we will begin to see our region transform. —Gerry F. Roll, Community Foundation of Hazard & Perry County In her CAPP/ATI essay, Gerry Roll, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Hazard and Perry County, calls for major investments in human capital and in community endowments through Rural Development Philanthropy. She sees potential for leveraging community ownership to overcome persistent poverty and hardship in Appalachia’s most distressed counties. Roll calls for an investment in human capital through quality early childhood education and care. She envisions new and extensive programs that represent a true investment in the future of the region. This is not likely to happen, nor should it, just through traditional public school systems or simply through current Head Start initiatives designed decades ago to address this very issue [high levels of persistent poverty]. The multi-generational problems of the region have far surpassed the capacity of any one local, state or federal program. Roll recognizes that her proposals will require significant resources. Local, state and federal entities have a role to play, but so do private citizens. The Community Foundation encourages the investment of regional wealth in community development philanthropy through estate planning. Gerry Roll wants to build a culture of community investment among residents as well as those who have left the area but will inherit regional assets when their parents pass. Community foundations have a key role to play in facilitating such investments...

Kentucky Needs a Budget that Supports Shared Prosperity in the Commonwealth...

Today the Kentucky General Assembly convened for the first in a 5-day special session. The primary purpose of the session is to pass a budget for the Commonwealth. Legislators adjourned the regular session on April 15 without passing a biennial budget for FY 2010-2012. State workers will face layoffs if a budget is not passed by July 1. Amidst high unemployment, in the worst recession since the Great Depression, budget shortfalls mean cuts to state funded programs when working families need them most. Decisions by local, state and federal leaders during this difficult time will shape the economic development landscape for years to come. A May 23rd Lexington Herald-Leader Op-ed by MACED Director of Research and Policy Jason Bailey draws on a recent MACED study to push legislators to think carefully about how their choices can impact future prosperity in the Commonwealth. A U.S. Census Bureau report released last fall had bad news for Kentucky: Only Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico had higher state poverty rates. Over the last decade, the gap between Kentucky's poverty rate and the U.S. rate has grown. In response, legislative leaders created a Poverty Task Force to explore what Kentucky could do. A December report contained many good ideas ranging from support for early childhood education to broadband access. Then the legislature began work on a new state budget, and the options focused on how deeply to cut existing services. Proposals to raise new revenue through tax reforms have been largely off the table....

Webinar on Rural Broadband May 24, 2pm.

The National Rural Assembly is hosting a webinar that will look at the proposed changes to FCC broadband regulation and how those changes might affect rural communities on Monday, May 24 at 2pm Eastern. Speakers will include Matt Wood, Associate Director of Media Access Project; Amalia Deloney, Coordinator for Media Action Grassroots Network and Wally Bowen, Executive Director of Mountain Area Information Network. The featured speakers, together with broadband advocates and rural Internet Service Providers, will discuss what the FCC proposal to reclassify broadband access as a Title II service means for rural communities and rural internet customers. The webinar is free, but registration is required in advance.   About Kristin TraczKristin Tracz served MACED’s Research and Policy team from 2009-2012 working on clean energy policy, energy efficiency programs and the Appalachian Transition Initiative. She joined MACED after finishing her Master of Environmental Management degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She now lives and works in Washington,...

New Funding Opportunities for EE/RE Advancement

Several funding opportunities in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy are currently available! See below for details: EE/RE JOB TRAINING FUNDS: Kentucky Home Performance is offering incentives to contractors who participate in an upcoming training to become certified through the national Building Performance Institute. The training will be held May 24th-26th in Louisville. In order to be eligible to work as a contractor doing EE/RE on residential properties through the Ky Home Performance program, you must be BPI-certified. Training incentives include: • $1,000 available for up to 80% of the cost of training & certification to obtain BPI training for Building Analyst Certification for the first 100 contractors or home auditors trained under the program • $2,000 available for equipment purchases up to 80% of the cost of qualified equipment for the first 50 contractors or companies participating in the KY Home Performance program. Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.kyhomeperformance.org for more information.   EE/RE ENERGY PROJECT FUNDS: The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a regional economic development agency that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. ARC just announced the fourth round of a grant competition this week to assist Appalachian communities in leveraging renewable-energy and energy-efficiency resources to revitalize their economies. ARC expects to provide eight to ten awards of up to $75,000 each, for a total of $545,000 in awards, to successful applicants. Aims of the grants may include – • Preparation and adoption of a community energy plan by a local...

The Limits of Industrial Recruitment

The challenge of overreliance on industrial recruitment as an economic development strategy came clear in an article in today’s Lexington Herald-Leader. The story, “A year later, no businesses in Martin Co. Business Center,” describes Martin County, KY’s attempt to recruit high-tech companies and private businesses by building an office facility in downtown Inez. The county spent $6 million in coal severance tax money for the building, but has attracted no companies. The state is now moving its local Health and Family Services office into the facility, and the Board of Education will soon operate on one floor. This story is all too common throughout the region. Based on the success of a few communities, industrial recruitment has long been the most popular strategy for economic development. But those places that have successfully recruited high-quality branch plants (and successfully kept them) are most often located near interstate highways and contain a more skilled workforce. Places in Central Appalachia like Martin County, one of the poorest counties in the United States, have had little success with the approach. A strategy based on recruitment and industrial site development is driven in part by the political opportunity of opening a new building, and has also been enabled by Kentucky’s rules around use of coal severance tax dollars. Since 1992, a portion of coal severance tax dollars go to Local Government Economic Development Fund (LGEDF) accounts for each coal-producing or coal-impacted county to use for economic diversification. But those dollars are restricted by statute...

Tourism: A Potential Path to a Sustainable Future

Despite the economic downturn, tourism remains big business in the region and is an important potential path for Central Appalachia's economic future. A recent analysis by Certec, Inc. for Kentucky found that the economic impact of tourism in the state amounted to $10.8 billion in 2009, as outlined in a press release by the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. The impact figures are based on such things as tourist spending at attractions, overnight hotel stays, campgrounds, tax data, attendance figures and airline business. Of particular interest is the fact that tourism in mostly rural areas of the state saw gains, while the tourism impact in more urban portions of the state declined. Tourism develpment is tricky because it can often lead to low wages and seasonal jobs; negative environmental and quality of life impacts; and the commercialization of local culture. But Central Appalachia's stunning forested mountains and rich cultural traditions are important assets with tourism potential. With good, careful planning, communities can take advantage of those opportunities in ways that are beneficial and sustainable. About Tamara...