As a strong advocate for robust funding of clean energy investments in the Recovery Act, Rep. Eshoo voted for and Congress passed the Recovery Act. It was signed into law in 2009. The final bill included more than $80 billion to jump-start our economy and build the clean energy jobs of tomorrow.

It included:

• $11 billion to modernize the energy grid
• $5 billion for low-income home weatherization projects.
• $4.5 billion to green federal buildings to cut our energy bill
• $6.3 billion for state and local energy efficiency and conservation grants
• $600 million in green job training programs
• $2 billion in competitive grants to develop the next generation of batteries

According to the government’s official website that provides access to data related to Recovery Act spending, our Congressional District has received over 500 individual grants, contracts, and loans totaling more than $1 billion.

Examples of Department of Energy Recovery Act Investments in our Congressional District:

• Stanford University scientists received over 300 Recovery Act awards totaling over $300 million in research funding.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a world-renowned facility that serves 3,000 visiting scientists and students each year, received over $90 million.
• Tesla Motors received a $465 million low-interest loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program. Since closing the loan, Tesla has hired over 3,500 employees, and recently repaid the loan in full, earning $12 million in interest to the American taxpayer.
• Energy Efficiency Grants in Information and Communication Technology: DOE announced the awarding of $47 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act under this program. More than half of the $47 million will be allocated to projects or companies located in Silicon Valley, including:
  • $9,300,000 to SeaMicro for its “Reducing Volume-Server Energy Use by Re-Architecting Server Components” project, which is estimated to save 75 percent of computing energy over conventional servers.
  • $9,921,887 to Yahoo! for its “Next Generation Passive Cooling Design for Data Centers” project, which allows data centers to use outside ambient air for cooling 99 percent of the year, instead of costly air conditioners.
  • $5,100,000 to Power Assure for its “Eliminating Wasted Energy by Automatically Powering Down Servers” project, which is estimated to save up to 50 percent of server energy use in data centers.