Weatherization Stimulus Money Not Being Utilized - page 2

Nonprofits scramble for dollars as they wait

And so, they're waiting for wage rules that are now expected Friday in 15 states. The rest are due at the end of the month. (Of course by then the Summer will be over)

Crisp's group is one of 30 agencies in Michigan given $195 million to weatherize homes, and none of that money has been spent so far on the actual act of weatherization. As in other states, only a small percentage of the money has been spent to buy equipment, perform training and otherwise prepare for the work.

In Nebraska, that amounts to about $1.5 million of $41.6 million in weatherization stimulus money. The community-action programs Zamora oversees in Idaho have spent just $700,000 of that state's $30 million pool, none on actual weatherization work.

Sperling said many states have compensated for the delays by spending money already budgeted for 2009 weatherization more quickly than usual. And the Department of Energy, he said, will have a better grasp of how much stimulus money has been spent when quarterly reports start coming in at the end of August.

But in the places where workers were hired months ago in anticipation of an influx of stimulus money, some nonprofits are running out of cash diverted from other places to make that payroll.

"They've basically been compensating people with money they don't have," Crisp said.