Rick Klein is ABC News' Senior Political Reporter and author of The Note's morning look at the upcoming day in politics. Throughout the day, ABC News' political team contributes to The Note with the very latest news and analysis from the nation's capital.
To email Rick Klein, click here.
RECENT POSTS
- AARP Endorses Cloture Vote, Not Yet Reid's Bill
- McCain Targets Ben Nelson on Health Care Vote
- 'Top Line' -- Ambassador Oprah? Senator Oprah?
- Sen. Brown: Health Care Bill Needs More Subsidies
- GOP Leaders: Obama Has ‘Emboldened Our Enemies' with Afghanistan Deliberations
- Burris Cleared of Legal Wrongdoing -- But With Swipe from Ethics Committee
- Friends, in Need: Obama Faces Backlash on Jobs, Economy
- Doug Hampton: Ensign Knowingly Broke Ethics Rules on Lobbying
- The Note's Must-Reads for Friday, November 20, 2009
- Did Illinois Guv Nod Off at Health Care Debate?
THE NOTE CATEGORIES
- 2010
- Afghanistan
- Bill Clinton
- CIA
- Congress
- Democratic party
- Environment
- Financial Reform
- GOP
- Gov. Mark Sanford
- Gov. Sarah Palin
- Guantanamo
- Health Care
- Hillary Clinton
- Immigration
- Iran
- Iraq
- John McCain
- Mitt Romney
- North Korea
- Obama Agenda
- Politics Live
- President Obama
- Republican Party
- Ronald Reagan
- Sen. John Ensign
- Senate
- Sonia Sotomayor
- Stimulus
- Sunday Shows
- Supreme Court
- Ted Kennedy
- The Note
- The Note Must-Reads
- Top Line
- Vice President Biden
- Virginia
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Obama Administration Grant Program De-Emphasizing Job Creation
July 08, 2009 11:23 AM
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:
When Vice President Joe Biden announced a new $3.3 billion grant program to upgrade the nation’s electricity network, the rationale was simple: “This is jobs -- jobs,” he said in April.
But the Obama administration is now saying it will not take the potential for job creation into account in “rating” proposed projects for possible funding -- after initially saying that would be a primary consideration.
In April, when the Energy Department first announced regulations for companies that wish to apply for “Smart Grid Investment Grants,” “job creation and retention” was among the explicit criteria.
“Projects will be evaluated based on the extent to which they create and retain jobs,” the Energy Department wrote in its official “Notice of Intent” for the grant program.
Other criteria included “project approach and feasibility” and “project impact.”
But late last month, the department quietly modified the criteria to take the job piece out. As the department explained in a June 26 set of Frequently Asked Questions:
“These criteria differ significantly from those presented within the [Notice of Intent]. First, DOE removed the criterion on the extent of jobs creation and now will require applicants, as stipulated within the Recovery Act, to report quarterly on the number of jobs created and retained.”
In a question-and-answer section written to help applicants understand the process, the document continues: “Will DOE use the number of jobs estimated to be created and/or retained as a criterion for rating a proposal for funding?”
“No. Although job creation is not included in the technical criteria used to rate proposals, it plays an important role throughout the grant process, and grant recipients are required to submit the numbers of jobs created and retained in their quarterly reports to DOE and to recovery.gov.”
No further explanation was given. A Department of Energy spokeswoman said that, despite the change, job creation still “will be taken into account as one of several factors in the application review,” since the program is being implemented in accordance with the goals articulated in the stimulus package.
“The goal of the Recovery Act is to support projects that will create jobs now and usher in a clean energy economy that will also create jobs for years to come,” the spokeswoman, Jen Stutsman, said in a written statement.
But Energy Department officials declined to answer questions about why the grant evaluation process was made.
The shift means less emphasis will be placed on the potential for job creation as the Energy Department decides which projects to fund -- even as the stimulus package has come under fire for not doing more to spark job creation.
The “smart grid” project aims to upgrade the nation’s electricity system to promote energy efficiency and reliability. Jobs impacted by the “smart grid” investments could include everything from meter manufacturers and installers to software providers and managers; the deadline to apply for grants is August 6, so no funding decisions have been made yet.
Katherine Hamilton, president of the GridWise Alliance, which advocates for “smart grid” investments, said she was not aware of the change until contacted by ABC.
She said the Energy Department appears to have decided that emphasizing job creation may not produce the breadth of projects that are needed to upgrade the nation’s electrical network.
“Job creation can be very artificial” as a way to measure a project’s worth, Hamilton said. “It could be that they realized that.”
After money for the project was included in the $787 billion stimulus program signed by President Obama in February, the administration has touted it as a key job-creating venture.
When Biden announced the “smart-grid” grant program in April, at a transformer factor in Jefferson City, Mo., he said it was about “jobs -- jobs.”
“I'm happy to announce today the Department of Energy plans to distribute nearly $3.4 billion -- $3.4 billion -- in Smart Grid technology development grants. Your management here, and all of you, you are in the business of being able to compete for those. This is jobs -- jobs,” Biden said.
July 8, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (15)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The administration is abondoning the "job creation" selling point for economic stimulus spending because it obviously isn't working!
Posted by: LongT | Jul 8, 2009 12:36:59 PM
BO's approval ratings have dropped 10+ points in the last 10-15 days. It will keep dropping with broken promises and stimulus that doesn't stimulate anything. Too bad.
Posted by: So Dumb | Jul 8, 2009 12:58:14 PM
How can it work? When they say job creation it's all about building bridges, parks, tunnels, smart grids .... DOES EVERYONE WORK IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY!?!?
Posted by: JA | Jul 8, 2009 2:20:02 PM
To paraphrase Obama:
It's like the special olympics.
Posted by: lorien1973 | Jul 8, 2009 3:19:25 PM
I guess by 'shovel ready' he meant a big pile of horse apples for us all to pick up. The stimulus wont create new jobs. Windmills and solar panels have been around for decades. How about trying something like legalizing marijuana that might actaully create new jobs and tax revenues Mr. Obama? Or are you waiting for 15% more unemployment which equals 15% (or more) less income tax revenue for the govrernment!
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 8, 2009 3:52:19 PM
Jobs?
Who needs jobs? Barack is going to pay my mortgage, put gas in my car and food on my table!
Posted by: drjohn | Jul 8, 2009 4:10:09 PM
"Shovel ready."
That has become hysterical as we now know what was being shoveled at us by Obama and Donkeycrats.
Posted by: drjohn | Jul 8, 2009 4:11:27 PM
Apparently the administration is also changing the buzz word from "stimulus" to "grants". Probably because it doesn't stimulate much of anything.
Posted by: LongT | Jul 8, 2009 4:48:35 PM
pure and simple incompetence. never completely judge anyone by how much or little institutional education anyone has. all the ivy league education in the world cannot create or teach common sense. common sense is like speed on the football field...you cant teach later in life...you either have it or you dont, and this bunch doesnt.
Posted by: catman | Jul 8, 2009 7:11:03 PM
obamas numbers are now lower than george bushes at the same time in service. we need to stop these clowns from doing any more damage to this economy and country....no cap and tax. no nationalized health care....and no more illeagal aliens taxing our system.
Posted by: catman | Jul 8, 2009 7:36:54 PM
Obama will be known as the President that started a lot but did not finish anything. When will he help unemployed Americans. Americans are still loosing their homes and jobs. This is not the change we wanted.
Posted by: debug | Jul 9, 2009 3:42:16 AM
Of course Barry's programs don't stimulate jobs- he is a liberal.
He was too busy "seeking out the marxist professors in college" to pay attention in economics 101. Punishing the producers and rewarding the deadbeats ALWAYS has negative repercussions. It destroys jobs, but it creates a massive gov't controlled nanny-state, which is exactly what barry is going for. The man hates America as it is and wants to drastically alter us to socialism.
Posted by: Dave | Jul 9, 2009 12:54:23 PM
How much human misery will this OBAMA cause?
Millions of lost jobs.
Millions of divorces due to financial problems.
Millions of wrecked families.
Millions of foreclosures.
Millions of new alcoholics.
Millions of small business failures, and millions more that will never get a chance to start.
No future. No hope. But lots of misery to spread around and more to come.
All due to one empty suit, inexperienced man who never ran any business... Obama.
And his misery will continue for your children and grandchildren, for years upon years. How many tens of millions of people will have their lives destroyed due to Barry and his ideas?
And if Barry passes CAP & TRADE and SOCIALIZED MEDICINE even more more misery.
Words and actions carry a price tag and this man now has a lot of blood on his hands. Talk about "hate speech" ... everything this guy does creates misery for millions more.
And does he care? Really?
Obama may not have started the problem, but he's finishing America.
Posted by: QUATO SOETORO | Jul 9, 2009 1:41:57 PM
go sarah and ron
Posted by: ed gant | Jul 9, 2009 1:55:09 PM
-----
When Vice President Joe Biden announced a new $3.3 billion grant program to upgrade the nation’s electricity network, the rationale was simple: “This is jobs -- jobs,” he said in April.
-----
FLIP.......
-----
But the Obama administration is now saying it will not take the potential for job creation into account in “rating” proposed projects for possible funding -- after initially saying that would be a primary consideration.
-----
FLOP.....
Lets see, it was just a few days ago that President was calling the Energy/Climate change Bill...a JOBS bill. I wonder how long it will take to back peddle on that one?
I guess because real world job creation is harder than grabbing a random number generator for your 'Stimulator' plan, the Obama Administration is now throwing in the towel on putting America back to work.
Posted by: Mike_C | Jul 9, 2009 4:11:16 PM
Post a comment
POLITICAL VIDEOS
THE NOTE BLOG ROLL
- ABC News -- George Stephanopoulos
- ABC News -- Jake Tapper
- ABC News Politics
- ABC News -- The Numbers
- ABC News -- The Blotter
- The American Prospect -- TAPPED
- The Atlantic -- Politics Channel
- The Boston Globe -- Political Intelligence
- Center for American Progress -- Think Progress
- Center for Responsive Politics
- The Chicago Sun-Times -- Lynn Sweet
- The Chicago Tribune -- The Swamp
- Drudge Report
- FactCheck.org
- FiveThirtyEight
- Heritage Foundation -- The Foundry
- The Hill -- Briefing Room
- The Hotline
- The Huffington Post
- The Los Angeles Times -- Top of the Ticket
- NPR -- Political Junkie
- National Review -- The Corner
- The New Republic -- The Plank
- The New York Times -- The Caucus
- Newsweek -- The Gaggle
- Political Wire -- Taegan Goddard
- Politico -- Ben Smith
- Politico -- Mike Allen’s Playbook
- PolitiFact
- Real Clear Politics
- Talking Points Memo
- Time -- The Page
- USA Today -- On Politics
- Variety -- Wilshire & Washington
- The Wall Street Journal -- Capital Journal
- The Washington Post -- The Fix
- The Washington Post -- 44
