U.S. Study Makes Case for Its Failed Weatherization Program

Surprise, surprise a new government study makes a powerful case for a fraud-infested welfare program that’s already fleeced American taxpayers out of millions to make low-income houses energy efficient.

 This can only mean the Obama administration plans to continue funding and promoting the scandal-plagued weatherization program which has proven to be a huge boondoggle infested with fraud and corruption. The money— a total of $5 billion from the disastrous stimulus—is distributed by the Department of Energy (DOE) to charities and community groups that have stolen the cash or used it illegally.

The idea is to make the homes of poor folks more efficient by offering them free insulation, sealing and even new central heating and cooling systems compliments of Uncle Sam. Instead there have been serious problems in the workmanship of more than half of the weatherization jobs in some states and a chunk of the money has been illegally spent by community group employees in other states to buy personal items. In one instance the husband of a charity employee got $10,000 worth of U.S. taxpayer-financed work on his house even though it didn’t qualify.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration shamelessly continues promoting and funding the hapless endeavor nationwide. In fact, Vice President Joe Biden has advertised it as an example of success in stimulus spending even though a federal audit exposed serious corruption problems in the weatherization program in his home state of Delaware. The state had received $13.7 million for weatherization projects when the scathing probe found “gross mismanagement” and fraudulent activity that includes contractors getting paid for work that was never done. 

Now, as if to counter the documented problems in the government’s costly weatherization enterprise, a new taxpayer-funded study outlines all the wonderful things about the program. For instance, as a nation we could consume much less energy and save an astounding $33 billion a year. A group of topnotch scientists conducted the research, which was funded by the DOE and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Accessing the entire study costs $35.95, but highlights are available for free from a government website announcing the findings. The nutshell version is that the paper, which includes a lot of technical scientific terms, makes a strong argument for weatherization especially as winter approaches. However, this is an area that still requires “more research” to figure out the most effective ways to weatherize, according to the government-funded scientists who conducted this particular study.