December 5, 2013--The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) welcomes the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program (EECLP), the final rule of which was published in today's Federal Register. This new program, under the purview of USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), provides an initial $250 million per year in federal loans and financial assistance to support energy efficiency programs operated by rural electric cooperatives and other rural utilities. RUS anticipates higher funding levels in subsequent years to meet demand.

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Washington, DC, July 2013 - South Carolina's consumer-owned electric cooperatives (co-ops) have released the results of their "Help My House" Loan Pilot Program. The pilot provided loans to co-op member-owners to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The loans are being repaid to the co-ops through participants' utility bills, in a process known as "on-bill financing." Billing data on the 125 participating South Carolina homes indicates a 34 percent reduction in energy use (1.35 million kWh) in the year after the work was completed, an average savings of $288 per home after loan payments.

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The pilot was launched in 2011 by the Central Electric Power Cooperative, the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, and eight South Carolina co-ops, with technical and policy support from EESI. The comprehensive energy retrofit approach is projected to yield an average energy savings of more than 11,000 kWh/year per home. Though the average loan was for $7,200 over a 10-year term, the net financial benefits are expected to be immediate, particularly during energy-intensive summer and winter months. The 35 percent projected energy savings from this meter-based on-bill financing pilot is substantially higher than the savings achieved by many traditional utility rebate-based residential retrofit programs. Further, 96 percent of interviewed participants said that they were satisfied with the program and found their homes to be more comfortable. The pilot homes are undergoing a yearlong measurement phase to confirm projections. In conjunction with these preliminary results, EESI has released fact sheets about the pilot program and a general overview of on-bill financing.

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Washington, DC – A partnership announced today will implement an innovative program to finance energy efficiency improvements for rural homes with low-cost loans that are repaid through customers’ electric bills (aka “on-bill financing”). The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), a nonprofit policy education and outreach organization, will work with electric cooperatives in South Carolina to design and implement the pilot project for a “Rural Energy Savings Program” that will serve as a model for similar programs in other states, and a pending national program. The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina (ECSC), the state association of electric cooperatives, and Central Electric Power Cooperative, the state’s generation and transmission co-op, will be EESI’s lead partners in this effort. The collaboration between the co-ops and EESI to design and implement this pilot project is being supported by a $225,000 grant to EESI from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

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On July 27, 2007, the House of Representatives passed, with a of vote 231-191,The Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 (H.R. 2419). The bill includes new investments in conservation, nutrition, specialty crops (fruit and vegetable) and energy production.

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On June 11, 2007, the Departments of Energy and Agriculture announced that they will provide up to $18 million, for FY07, to support research and development of biobased products, biofuels, bioenergy and related processes.

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On May 11, 2007, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute released, The 2007 Farm Bill: Policy Recommendations for Integrated Renewable Energy Production, this is an update to their 2001 farm bill recommendations, The 2002 Farm Bill: Revitalizing the Farm Economy Through Renewable Energy Development.

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On May 1, 2007, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman announced that the DOE will provide up to $200 million, from FY07 to FY11, to support the development of small-scale, (at ten percent of commercial scale), cellulosic biorefineries in the United States.

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On April 16, 2007, the Rural Business-Cooperative Service at the US Department of Agriculture announced the availability of approximately $19.3 million for Value-Added Producer Grants (Sec. 6401 of the 2002 Farm Bill).

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On March 21, 2007 Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns announced the solicitation for proposals for the Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program (Section 9006) authorized under Title IX, of the 2002 Farm Bill.

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