Research

This morning, President Obama made the trek across the Potomac for a press conference at a Home Depot to discuss his home weatherization initiative dubbed “Cash For Caulkers.” (Curiously, the White House actually chose to try to try to tie the name to their disastrous “Cash For Clunkers” program.)

The premise of this program is that by incentivizing homeowners to weatherize their homes, jobs will be created. The problem is we’ve seen this movie before.  Besides the problems associated with “cash for clunkers,” Stimulus I contained $5 billion for weatherization programs that still haven’t produced any jobs. 

In October, we highlighted the story of a business in Chicago that was counting on an increase in demand for weatherization products as a result of the stimulus, to spur business. The demand was far less than expected, however, and the business owners are not hiring a fraction of the people they thought they would.

The story in Chicago is not an isolated incident. The Los Angeles Times recently reported on the lack of green jobs being created by the stimulus in California, even though many economists thought the Golden State would benefit greatly from stimulus funds for energy efficiency and clean technology.  Problems center around bureaucratic red tape, a lack of people qualified to do the work, and a large amount of stimulus funds going to research – which doesn’t create many jobs in the short term. 

Lastly, government auditors have expressed concern that weatherization programs could be one of the hardest aspects of the stimulus to track.  In light of all the problems that have occurred in tracking stimulus funds and jobs created by the stimulus this is not comforting news.  

If history is any guide, “cash for caulkers” will follow Stimulus I’s dismal lead, and we’ll once again be left asking ‘Where are the jobs?’