WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin applauded an announcement from the Biden administration that over $95 million in new funding is being made available to Wisconsin through the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) – the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s largest residential energy retrofit program. This new funding from the Baldwin-supported infrastructure law will allow states to retrofit thousands of homes to make them more energy efficient while lowering utility bills for low-income homeowners. WAP retrofit funding is designed to address the “whole home” including installing insulation, updating heating and cooling systems, upgrading electrical appliances, and taking other common-sense actions that will make homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer with less energy usage.
“I voted for the infrastructure law because it will create jobs, put Wisconsin to work rebuilding our infrastructure, and lower costs for households,” said Senator Baldwin. “This investment from the Biden-Harris Administration in Wisconsin will cut energy bills, improve health and safety of homes, and reduce harmful emissions, all while creating good paying jobs across the state.”
The infrastructure law expands the reach of WAP to help more state, local, and tribal governments reduce household energy use – saving consumers money, reducing emissions, and improving the health and safety of homes in communities that are disproportionally impacted by high energy costs. The program furthers President’s Biden efforts to lower costs for families while growing an equitable clean energy economy on our path to a net zero emissions economy by 2050. The program also implements the President’s Justice40 commitment, which aims to ensure that federal agencies deliver at least 40% of benefits from certain investments to disadvantaged communities. Today, DOE announced is accepting applications from states, Tribes, and territories for $3.16 billion in new funding through the Weatherization Assistance Program.
Since 1976, WAP has served over seven million households and delivered an average of $372 in annual energy savings for American families. Today’s funding announcement will transform the WAP program by expanding weatherization services to ten times current funding levels, creating jobs, and reestablishing economic opportunities in communities that have been hit the hardest by economic, racial, and environmental injustices. In addition to creating more energy-efficient homes, weatherization investments make homes more resilient to climate change, help create good-paying jobs, reduce energy costs, and support cleaner air and public health.
See the WAP state-by-state funding table here.
An online version of this release is available here.
