Energy a potential career for teens- We Talk About How We All Use Energy and are Part of the Solution
We Talk About How We All Use Energy and are Part of the Solution
“PRINGLE – Brian Oram quizzed a group of students at the West Side Career and Technology.
“What percentage of energy do we waste?” Oram asked.
“Too much” and “a lot” were some responses. Oram pushed for a number.
“Fifty eight percent of the energy we produce, we waste,” Oram disclosed.
Oram was one of a dozen speakers at the school Wednesday talking about careers in or tied to the energy field. He is a licensed professional geologist and soil scientist and owns a private environmental consulting business, B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc.
Cabot Oil & Gas and Junior Achievement of NEPA Inc. helped organize the sessions at the school. The purpose of the sessions was exposing students to career options, Administrative Director Nancy P. Tkatch said.
The energy field has jobs and careers “in our own backyard” for students, such as welders, petroleum engineers and computer-technology specialists, Tkatch said.
Bill desRosiers, external affairs coordinator for Cabot Oil, said he talked to students about job opportunities resulting from Marcellus Shale production in Susquehanna County. He said some of the jobs are not even at drilling sites, where natural gas is released through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Those jobs involve repairing drill bits and computer technologies, desRosiers said.
Fracking opponents object to potential environmental impacts, including contamination of ground water, depletion of fresh water and the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface.
mbuffer@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2073″
Note my writing – story by MICHAEL P. BUFFER (STAFF WRITER) –
Comments
1. Great Event
2. We need to talk more about the energy we generate and how we waste.
3. Need to come up with a solution that includes all stakeholders and is an integrated solution. All energy sources should be on the table
4. I was not interviewed for the story.
5. But I really like these events – we are part of the problem and we must be part of the solution.
Message
1. Conservation First
2. Educate and Use Energy Wisely
3. Make Good Long-Term Decisions as a Community
4. Need for a National Energy Policy – not picking winners, but getting us (citizens and business) to work together.
5. Importance and role for Groundsource, Geothermal, and biomass options.
Environmental Protection Agency Releases EIA Releases Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources
EIA Releases Report on Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources — The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report titled World Shale Gas Resources: An Initial Assessment of 14 Regions Outside the United States which provides an initial assessment of shale oil and updates a prior assessment in 2011 of shale gas resources. This new assessment expanded the shale formations examined from 69 in 2011, to 137 in 41 countries outside the United States. Additional geologic research and well drilling results not previously available allowed for a more informed evaluation of the shale formations. This new report also highlights the role of shale formations and other tight plays as sources of crude oil, lease condensates, and a variety of liquids processed from wet natural gas. Of the shale plays reviewed, the United States is listed second in shale oil resources and fourth in shale gas resources. To learn more, please see the following link:
http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/
If you are in Pennsylvania, you can contribute to the Citizen Groundwater Database and help track change for FREE and if you would like to learn about our Natural Gas Related Information, please visit us at http://www.private-well-owner.org.
Volunteer
We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.
Everything we do began with an idea.
We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.
For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.
Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Fact Sheet: Methane Gas Migration and Mitigation
Methane gas has been a “hidden” problem in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The gas is typically associated with wetlands, bogs, landfills, coal-producing formations, natural saline seeps, some glacial deposits, and gas storage areas. Because of the development of the Marcellus Shale, the presence of methane gas and the potential for methane gas migration is a growing concern. Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is lighter than air. Natural gas is mostly methane (70 – 90 % CH4), carbon dioxide (0 to 8 % CO2), plus other gases. The other gases may include ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), butane (C4H10), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as well as small amounts of helium.
Methane gas is highly flammable between a lower explosion limit (LEL) of 5.53 percent by volume in air and an upper explosion limit (UEL) of 15 percent. These percentages are equivalent to a methane concentration of 50,000 and 150,000 parts per million (ppm) in air. The minimum concentration level at which the gas has the potential to explode is called the lower explosive limit (LEL); below the LEL level there is not enough gas to cause an explosion. Above the UEL, there is inadequate oxygen to fuel combustion, but if the space is vented and the gas concentration drops below the UEL, the gas can become diluted enough to explode (it would require an ignition source). Methane is not considered toxic, but it is an asphyxiant at a concentration of over 50 percent in air (it displaces oxygen). Therefore, the primary risks for methane would be asphyxiation in a confined or poorly vented area or a potential explosion hazard. As a safety measure, the natural gas industry adds mercaptans to the produced methane gas that enters the pipeline and your home. The mercaptans produce a very pungent odor so that gas leaks will be noticed, but unprocessed methane gas tends to have NO ODOR. It is critical to note that some unprocessed methane gas may contain long chain hydrocarbon molecules that can create an odor.
From the available data in the Citizen Groundwater/Surfacewater Database, it would appear that the natural background level of methane in private wells in Northeastern Pennsylvania ranges from not detectable or trace levels to over 28 mg/L. You may suspect the presence of methane gas in your water if you hear a “gurgling noise”, sputtering at the tap, the water has a lot of gas bubbles, is effervescent or fizzy.
Note: If the pumping level of water in your well starts to fall below your pump intake, ordinary air may mix with the water and produce similar symptoms. When in doubt, contact a professional to determine the nature of the observed gas.
For more on this topic – Methane Gas Migration
Citizen Groundwater and Surfacewater Database
Pennsylvanians want more electricity to come from renewable sources
live.psu.edu/story/60984#nw69
Thursday, August 30, 2012
There is broad support for increasing the amount of renewable energy production from sources such as wind in the state.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — There is broad public support among Pennsylvania residents for increased renewable-energy generation, according to a study recently conducted by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
The research found that Pennsylvanians rate hydropower, solar electricity and wind power highest among electricity generation technologies, followed by nuclear power and natural gas. The results indicate that the average Pennsylvania household is willing to pay an extra $55 per year to increase renewable-energy production by an amount equal to 1 percent of Pennsylvania electricity consumption.
The study, “Pennsylvanians’ Attitudes Toward Renewable Energy,” was conducted by Clare Hinrichs, associate professor of rural sociology, and Richard Ready, professor of agricultural and environmental economics, with assistance from doctoral students John Eshleman and James Yoo. The project was funded by a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
“The dominant message that came across was that there is broad support for increasing the amount of renewable energy production in the state, and there is broad support for the state taking an active role in encouraging that,” Ready said. “The majority of Pennsylvanians support strengthening the state’s alternative-energy portfolio standard that mandates that a certain amount of electricity comes from renewable sources.”
Ready noted that researchers were surprised they did not find a single group of respondents who disagreed. Read more
Energy a focus at Penn State’s Ag Progress Days
live.psu.edu/story/60528#nw69
Monday, July 30, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Energy — be it solar, wind, biofuels from plants or natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale — again will be a focus at Ag Progress Days, Aug. 14-16.
New this year is the Renewable Energy Showcase, a series of presentations on energy resources and conservation practices, to be held on Tuesday, Aug. 14, in the Learning Center Tent at Main and East 9th streets (below the Pasto Museum).
“These will be short, informative presentations by industry experts and Penn State Extension energy specialists,” said Ed Johnstonbaugh, extension educator, who is coordinating the showcase. “The topics will focus on conservation, solar and wind energy, and biogas and biomass energy. We have a great lineup of educational and thought-provoking presentations.”
Topics will be presented all three days at the following times:
Noon — Conservation
–Travel Adventures on a Solar-Powered Canal Boat
–Energy Efficiency and Conservation to Lower Costs
–Southwest Pa. Renewable Energy Incubator Project Update
1 p.m. — Solar and Wind Energy
–Solar Energy 101, Financing Options, System Design, and Combination Benefits
–Why Wind? Developing the Partnerships
2:15 p.m. — Biogas and Biomass Energy
–Manure Cures: Benefits of Biogas
–Switchgrass Pellets for Fuel
–Warm Season Grasses as Bioenergy Crops and for Environmental Benefits
–Woody Crops as Biomass Energy Resources
Ag Progress Days visitors also will have the opportunity to talk with commercial exhibitors involved in alternative-energy opportunities and conservation in the Energy Conservation Area on West 9th Street.
In addition, energy crops and biofuels will be the subject of an exhibit in the new Joseph D. Harrington Crops, Soils, and Conservation Building at the end of East 5th Street. Information will be available about several varieties of plants that can be grown by farmers in the Northeast and converted into energy.
“Our team is working to develop bioenergy cropping systems that provide value-added co-products and soil-conservation benefits in addition to bioenergy,” said Dan Ciolkosz, extension associate who specializes in energy crops. “This work will be on display at Ag Progress Days.”
Show attendees also can collect fact-based and timely information on issues related to Marcellus Shale exploration, leasing and drilling from Penn State extension educators and commercial vendors at the Marcellus Center on West 10th Street.
“The development of the Marcellus Shale has impacted the agricultural community in many ways,” said Tom Murphy, extension educator and co-director of Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research.
“Our focus this year at Ag Progress Days will be to present science-based information on topics ranging from the latest research on industry workforce development to remediation techniques after pipeline installation, and many other related subjects in between.”
Sponsored by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Progress Days is held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, nine miles southwest of State College on Route 45. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 14; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 15; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 16. Admission and parking are free.
For more information, visit the Ag Progress Days website at http://apd.psu.edu. Twitter users can find and share information about the event by using the hashtag #agprogress.
Natural gas as a transportation fuel the topic of conference
live.psu.edu/story/59583#nw69
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Increasingly, bus companies are switching to natural gas fuel. Shown here, a Centre Area Transportation Authority vehicle 'gases' up.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A one-day conference in Lehigh County, sponsored by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will provide a comprehensive overview of using natural gas as a transportation fuel in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic region.
“Natural Gas Vehicles: The Road Ahead in Pennsylvania” will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 11, at Penn State Lehigh Valley in Center Valley. The program is being organized by Penn State Extension.
“The conference will be a place where clean-air and clean-transportation advocates, industry stakeholders, fleet managers and policymakers can learn the fundamentals of using natural gas as a transportation fuel,” said conference coordinator Dave Messersmith, extension educator and member of Extension’s Marcellus Education Team.
“Professionals attending the sessions will be able to network with other natural gas vehicle stakeholders, and they can discuss opportunities and challenges to greater adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel.”
The conference will feature sessions titled “A Primer on Natural Gas as a Transportation Fuel,” “What’s Happening with Natural Gas Vehicles in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic,” “Understanding Shale Gas in Pennsylvania and Natural Gas Market Outlook,” “The Texas Clean Transportation Triangle: A Model for Success,” “Engine and Conversion Technologies,” and “Fueling Station Concepts and Technologies.”
Presenters include researchers, entrepreneurs and industry experts who will provide a fundamental understanding of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
The registration fee for the conference is $149. For more information, contact Carol Loveland at 570-433-3040 or by email at cal24@psu.edu.
To register for the conference by phone, call toll-free 877-489-1398. To register online, go to the conference website at http://agsci.psu.edu/natural-gas-vehicles and click on RSVP in the gray bar near the top of the page.
PennPIRG releases report on threat of nuclear power to PA drinking water
www.timesleader.com/news/PennPIRG-release-report-on.html
1/24/2012
PennPIRG releases report on threat of nuclear power to PA drinking water
The Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG) Education Fund has released new data on how nuclear power plants are a threat to the drinking water for Pennsylvanians in a report, “Too Close To Home: Nuclear Power and the Threat to Drinking Water.”
The March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster delivered a reminder to the world that nuclear power comes with inherent risks when a large amount of radioactive material escaped into the environment over the ensuing months. Drinking water sources as far as 130 miles from the plant were contaminated with radioactive iodine, prompting cities such as Tokyo to warn against consumption of the water by infants.
In the United States, 49 million Americans receive their drinking water from surface sources located within 50 miles of an active nuclear power plant – inside the boundary the Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses to assess risk to food and water supplies.
According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans in 35 states drink water from sources within 50 miles of nuclear power plants. New York has the most residents drawing drinking water from sources near power plants, with the residents of New York City and its environs making up most of the total. Pennsylvania has the second most, including residents of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg.
The attached full report provides more information on the risks nuclear power poses and suggestions on how to reduce such risks.
PennPIRG- Too Close To Home Report (pdf)
Company makes diesel with sun, water, CO2
Massachusetts biotech firm promises ‘energy independence.’
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow.
Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.
What can it mean? No less than “energy independence,” Joule’s web site tells the world, even if the world’s not quite convinced.
“We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we’ve validated, all of which we’ve shown to investors,” said Joule chief executive Bill Sims.
“If we’re half right, this revolutionizes the world’s largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry,” he said. “And if we’re right, there’s no reason why this technology can’t change the world.”
The doing, though, isn’t quite done, and there’s skepticism Joule can live up to its promises.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Philip Pienkos said Joule’s technology is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have just collecting the fuel their organism is producing.
Timothy Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says Joule must demonstrate its technology on a broad scale.
Perhaps it can work, but “the four letter word that’s the biggest stumbling block is whether it ‘will’ work,” Donohue said. “There are really good ideas that fail during scale up.”
Sims said he knows “there’s always skeptics for breakthrough technologies.”
“And they can ride home on their horse and use their abacus to calculate their checkbook balance,” he said.
Joule was founded in 2007. In the last year, it’s roughly doubled its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of private funding in April and added John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors.
Work to create fuel from solar energy has been done for decades, such as by making ethanol from corn or extracting fuel from algae. But Joule says they’ve eliminated the middleman that’s makes producing biofuels on a large scale so costly.
That middleman is the “biomass,” such as the untold tons of corn or algae that must be grown, harvested and destroyed to extract a fuel that still must be treated and refined to be used. Joule says its organisms secrete a completed product, already identical to ethanol and the components of diesel fuel, then live on to keep producing it at remarkable rates.
Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they say they can do it at $30 a barrel.
JAY LINDSAY Associated Press
February 28, 2011- Link
Volunteer
We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.
Everything we do began with an idea.
We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.
For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.
Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Farmers, pecan growers say coal plant kills plants
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VEGETATIVE_WASTELAND?SITE=PALEH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-12-28-06-48-37
Farmers, pecan growers say coal plant kills plants
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI
Associated Press
BASTROP, Texas (AP) — Along a stretch of Highway 21, in Texas’ pastoral Hill Country, is a vegetative wasteland. Trees are barren, or covered in gray, dying foliage and peeling bark. Fallen, dead limbs litter the ground where pecan growers and ranchers have watched trees die slow, agonizing deaths.
Visible above the horizon is what many plant specialists, environmentalists and scientists believe to be the culprit: the Fayette Power Project – a coal-fired power plant for nearly 30 years has operated mostly without equipment designed to decrease emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain.
The plant’s operator and the state’s environmental regulator deny sulfur dioxide pollution is to blame for the swaths of plant devastation across Central Texas. But evidence collected from the Appalachian Mountains to New Mexico indicates sulfur dioxide pollution kills vegetation, especially pecan trees. Pecan growers in Albany, Ga., have received millions of dollars in an out-of-court settlement with a power plant whose sulfur dioxide emissions harmed their orchards.
Now, extensive tree deaths are being reported elsewhere in Texas, home to 19 coal-fired power plants – more than any other state. Four more are in planning stages. In each area where the phenomenon is reported, a coal-fired power plant operates nearby.
The Fayette Power Project sits on a 10-square-mile site about 60 miles southeast of Austin, near where horticulturalist Jim Berry, who owns a wholsesale nursery in Grand Saline, Texas, describes a 30-mile stretch of Highway 21 as a place where “the plant community was just devastated.”
“There was an environmental catastrophe,” Berry said recently.
“It wasn’t just the pecan groves,” he said after driving through the area. “It was the entire ecosystem that was under duress.”
Pecan grower Harvey Hayek said he has watched his once-prosperous, 3,000-tree orchard in Ellinger, just south of the Fayette plant, dwindle to barely 1,000 trees. Skeletal trunks and swaths of yellowed prairie grass make up what had been a family orchard so thick the sun’s rays barely broke through the thick canopy of leaves.
“Everywhere you look, it’s just dead, dead, dead,” Hayek said.
The grove that had produced 200,000 pounds of pecans annually yielded a mere 8,000 pounds this year. Hayek said as the family’s business decreased, he watched his father-in-law, Leonard Baca, fade. Baca, 73, died after shooting himself in the head.
Retired University of Georgia plant pathologist Floyd Hendrix, who has done extensive research on sulfur dioxide damage to vegetation, said he has reviewed photographs and test results from Hayek’s grove.
“From what I’ve seen so far, there’s not any doubt in my mind that it’s SO2 injury,” Hendrix said.
Sierra Club chemist and botanist, Neil Carman also has visited the ranch. Aside from the decreased nut production, the orchard’s leaves bore telltale brown spotting associated with damage, Carman said.
The Lower Colorado River Authority, which operates the Fayette plant, argues there is no scientific link between its emissions and the dying trees, noting the region also has suffered significant droughts.
But the authority is investing nearly $500 million to install two “scrubbers” designed to decrease pollution. A third, newer boiler has a built-in scrubber. The equipment should be in place by early 2011 and will decrease the plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions by about 90 percent, said authority spokeswoman Clara Tuma.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says air monitors indicate the Fayette plant “is not the likely cause” of the area’s vegetative die-off. The plant operates under a state permitting program that was disapproved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June. The EPA argues Texas’ permits do not allow for accurate air monitoring and violate the federal Clean Air Act. Texas has challenged the disapproval in court.
The EPA’s criminal investigation branch, meanwhile, has toured properties and interviewed pecan growers near Ellinger. The agency’s civil division has been asked to review the information, according to e-mails obtained by The Associated Press. Other e-mails indicate the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental wing also investigated the matter, though a spokesman said he could not “confirm or deny” an ongoing probe.
The Fayette plant is far from a lone source of concern. From Franklin – a town about 100 miles north that is surrounded by coal-fired facilities – to Victoria – 80 miles to the south and near the Coleto Creek power plant – Texas ranchers say orchards and trees of all varieties are dying.
Charlie Faupel said his Victoria pecan trees are native plants that have grown along a creek bed for seven generations, supplementing a family income that also relied on cattle, real estate and publishing. When Faupel was a teenager, he would collect and sack the pecans, using the extra money to buy a car or go out.
Now, the few pecans that grow are bitter or thin.
On Dec. 9, Faupel filed a formal air pollution complaint against the Coleto Creek plant and demanded the state environmental commission investigate the emissions.
“I have noticed for over 20 years how the Coleto Creek power plant’s sulfur dioxide has been damaging hundreds of the trees on our property – live oaks, white oaks and pecans,” Faupel wrote. “Most of the white oak trees are already dead. The surviving trees don’t have as much foliage and they’re becoming more diseased, I believe, from the plant’s sulfur dioxide weakening the trees over time.”
The Coleto Creek Power Plant did not respond to repeated requests for comment. .
Faupel said some tree canopies recently appeared to be thickening and believes it’s because Coleto Creek put a “bagging system” on its boilers, decreasing emissions. But the plant plans to add a second boiler that is expected to add some 1,700 tons of sulfur dioxide pollution to the air annually.
“I’m not one of these fanatic environmentalists,” Faupel said. “But when you are a seventh generation rancher, you are taught to be a good steward of the land . and you want the things on it, the cattle and the vegetation, to be healthy. And they’re not.”
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Help For Homeowners To Install Money-Saving Geothermal
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=14950&typeid=1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
10/27/2010
CONTACT:
Michael Smith, Department of Environmental Protection
717-787-1323
Pennsylvania Expands Keystone HELP Loan Program to Help Homeowners Install Money-Saving Geothermal Systems
New Program Puts Federal Recovery Act Funds to Work Creating Jobs, Producing Clean Energy
HUMMELSTOWN, DAUPHIN CO. — Pennsylvania homeowners who want to cut their heating and cooling bills in half now have a new, affordable method for financing clean geothermal heat pump systems, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger and Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord announced today.
The officials said a new Keystone Home Energy Loan Program option offers low-interest loans that are combined with companion loans given in anticipation of federal tax credits for fuel-conserving geothermal systems.
Hanger and McCord made the announcement while visiting the home of Peter and Laurel Hartwell, who are using Cleona-based G.F. Bowman Inc. to install a geothermal heat pump system.
The program is made possible with $5 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and could help as many as 750 homeowners purchase geothermal systems. Installing the systems will create hundreds of jobs for contractors like G.F. Bowman.
“Geothermal really is one of the great, largely untapped forms of renewable energy that is available to us,” said Secretary Hanger. “Fortunately, more consumers are recognizing this and are making the smart decision to put geothermal systems in their homes. This program will make sure more families have access to this clean, money-saving technology by offering new financing options. That’s good news for consumers, our economy and our environment.”
The secretary added that by taking advantage of these federal and state incentives, geothermal systems can pay for themselves within only five to 10 years.
“Keystone HELP is a triple winner: families can make energy efficiency improvements to their homes that save money and reduce energy use, the commonwealth earns a secure return, and the program creates good-paying, much-needed jobs for local installers, contractors, and manufacturers,” Treasurer McCord said. “Less pollution, lower costs, and more jobs—good work on three fronts.”
Under the new geothermal loan program, qualifying homeowners can take advantage of an unsecured 4.99 percent loan for up to $15,000 with a term of up to 10 years. McCord noted that homeowners can also elect to take an optional “tax credit anticipation loan” equal to the expected 30-percent federal tax credit up to a maximum of $10,000. The HELP program will make the first 12 monthly payments of the tax credit anticipation loan and homeowners can use the tax credit they receive to pay the remainder of the loan without any prepayment penalties.
Other special financing is available to homeowners who install a geothermal heat pump system as part of a comprehensive “whole house” improvement project recommended through a certified energy audit. In this case, qualifying homeowners can obtain a secured Keystone HELP loan for up to $35,000 with rates as low as 2.875 percent.
All work financed through Keystone HELP must be completed by a certified local contractor.
“This program is another great example of how the federal stimulus program is helping us build a green economy in Pennsylvania while encouraging private investment and putting people to work,” said Hanger. “To date, the federal stimulus has directed more than $136 million to our state for clean energy projects like wind and solar, plus another $253 million to help consumers save money by weatherizing their homes. And we’ve leveraged those funds to attract about $1 billion in private investment.
“These are good investments in our economy that will pay dividends for decades to come, not only through lower utility bills, but also through cleaner air and cleaner water.”
Created in 2006 by the Pennsylvania Treasury and AFC First Financial Corp. of Allentown, Keystone HELP offers affordable energy efficiency financing options, including rebates and low-interest loans, enabling homeowners to purchase and install energy efficient equipment or undertake improvements to cut energy use.
Keystone HELP began offering even lower rate loans in 2009, when Treasury partnered with DEP to expand the program’s impact by using funds provided under Pennsylvania’s 2008 Alternative Energy Investment Act.
Keystone HELP has helped more than 7,000 homeowners finance more than $58 million in money-saving home improvements. Visit www.keystonehelp.com to learn more or to apply for a loan.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120