It Takes 5 Gov’t Agencies to Accomplish What One Person Can Do

It doesn’t take special training or a wad of cash to conserve energy or use it more efficiently. Just walk around your home, find the drafts, and then do some inexpensive maintenance like weather-stripping the front door, replacing old mini-blinds that allow cold to come in between the slats, changing air filters, putting down a throw rug on a tile/wood floor, etc.

All that’s required is common sense, a few hours of work, and the cash you would have spent on a dinner or two. That is, until government decides to “help.”

Take, for example, what’s going on in Durham, as detailed by the Herald-Sun. The city is seeking neighborhoods to apply for government grants from the Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Program. The EPA has given Durham $500,000 for this. By my count, the Herald-Sun story lists five different government agencies/departments involved in this grant:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Durham City-County Sustainability Office
Durham Department of Community Development
Durham Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services
Durham County Engineering Office

Then there’s also a nonprofit — Clean Energy Durham. The story describes it as a group managing neighborhood outreach for Durham.

If that doesn’t give you pause, then read the story for all the grant requirements — things like at least 100 homes in a participating neighborhood, no home more than 2,000 square feet, only single story homes, monitoring of energy bills, and $300 fee per property owner.

I have a much faster, simpler, more efficient answer: Take a trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot, buy some weather stripping, filters, and a throw rug, and presto: Problem solved. If your home has bigger issues, adjust your family budget and save the cash to address it.