Rhode Island's Federal Home Energy Rebate Program Launch

Hello, we are on, we are live. Hello everyone, I am Wayne Tate, President of IBEW Local 99 and thank you all for being here today. For over 100 years, the highly trained members of Local 99 and its contractors have been servicing the electrical needs of Rhode Island. From lighting and outlets and EV charges and residential, to solar and wind turbines to generate clean, renewable energy. In unison with our 70 plus contractors and over 900 members, we have been servicing the electrical industry in every aspect and look forward to doing so in the future. Thank you and now I would like to introduce to you our Governor, who is moving Rhode Island to a clean energy transition, the Honorable Dan McKee. Well thanks Wayne, I'm glad the microphone's working. Yes, it's good, no, I'm thrilled to be here today and talk about the investment and the commitment that our state is making in terms of clean energy and it doesn't happen without, you know, our Secretary Granholm. So Secretary, thank you so much. The work that you're doing around this country, we just talked about, it's nice to have a in that position he's in right now, we count on our Governors. As a former mayor, I have the same conversation with our mayors too. That's who gets the things done and that's why I know that we're getting so much done is because of your leadership. So thank you so much for that. Happy to be here at the IBEW Local 99 Union Hall, you know, hosting us today. This is where the work happens, not necessarily in this hall, but where the people who work out in the field get the work done and it is so important for us to just go over the litany of work that has happened in our Office of Energy, right? With Chris, where's Chris? Chris is hanging around here somewhere, right there, that's Chris Kerns. And I tell you, when I travel, whether it's at the New England Governor's event last week when we were talking about offshore wind and energy in particular, or whether I'm in D.C. at an NGA meeting and Chris is there, he's a go-to person nationally. And I think that, Secretary, you're kind of sensing that, right? With his idea that we're going to be number one, we're going to be number one, and guess what he delivers. So Chris, thank you to your office and everyone that works with you. I want to just go over just a litany really quickly, just to kind of let people know that in the context of the work that we're doing. So we have a plan in this state, it's the Rhode Island 2030 plan, right? And this Rhode Island 2030 plan, inside of that, it talks about energy, and it talks about renewable energy, and it talks about clean energy, and it talks about servicing every community in the state, and where there are hurdles to be lowered, we're lowering. And that's one of the things that we're talking about today. But in 2021, I signed a 2021 Act on Climate. I was in office as Governor, as then-Governor Raimondo moved to Secretary of Commerce for about three months. And we signed an Act on Climate. And we set these very, very high-level goals on making sure that we are having an emissions reduction plan that sets 2030, 40, and 50 with some very strong goals. In the past three years, Rhode Island has taken some of the big steps in advancing our emission reduction objectives in advance, you know, to advance that Act on Climate, including putting our EC4 commission together and started meeting that monthly rather than quarterly and how we funded that. I see Director Gray in the audience as well, and how we put a sustainable budget line item that will allow that committee to do the work, which they had no money. And I came in, I said, you got to have some resources, right, Terry? And we got those resources in play. So we supported the Renewable Energy Standard Law. This law requires that electricity emissions to be offset but with 100% renewable energy by 2033. And if we're able to keep the local community, the state, and the federal partnership, we'll meet that goal. And that's why it's so important, you know, what's happening, going to happen in November for us. I don't think we've had a more important election for our state's economy than what the decision that's going to be made by the national voters in November. Rhode Island was the state to complete phase one of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program. And we did that. We launched the Clean Heat Rhode Island just over a year ago. The program has issued over 2,600 rebates to households across the state, totaling $9.8 million. And I want to just put a reference to that. We have a million people in our state. So if you're talking about a state that has 10 million people, multiply that by 10 to get the context of how aggressive we're being and how successful we are making this work. We launched the Erica Nadowski Electric Bike Program that has awarded over 1,250 rebates on e-bike purchases. And it's special to me because when Erica passed, Erica actually worked with me when I was a lieutenant governor as a communications director. And she was all in on making sure that the environment really worked well for us long term. So having Erica's name on that is special every time that I see that. Electric Vehicle Rebate Program. And that program has awarded over 1,800 rebates for EV purchases. We launched the Power Up Rhode Island with a $750,000 rebate program in late July to support EV charging infrastructure at Rhode Island residential properties. We're in my hometown of Cumberland. I was sitting in a garage on Riley's Platt talking about this individual who has electric vehicles. And he was showing us how that works. So this is something that is so important that we're able to charge the very vehicles that we are looking for people to invest in. And we are part of a five-state coalition that was awarded 450 million federal climate pollution reduction grants and $450 million. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for heat pump investments, Rhode Island will be receiving somewhere between $35 and $45 million from that award. So thank you, and I think that deserves a little round of applause for anybody in the room that is bought into the idea that we're going to put people to work at good paying jobs and we're going to raise incomes and personal wealth in every home in the state of Rhode Island. We received a $49 million grant from the U.S. EPA for the solar for all grant program that will launch next year, a new community solar program and also household solar installations in historically underserved communities. And we've awarded $15 million in federal grants to increase the number of electric vehicles charging stations that will be built upon the 20-plus million dollars in federal national electric vehicle infrastructure funds that OER will be releasing in the upcoming months. This list is long, but the work has been really, you know, aggressively working at this, Secretary, and that's why I'm kind of sharing all these pieces. So when you go around and you see my friend Governor Mills up in Maine, you let him know that we're trying to set the standard here. So Rhode Island, Mass., and Connecticut were selected by the Department of Energy for up to a $389 million funding to upgrade electric infrastructure on onshore transmission to support 4,800 megawatts of offshore wind. And we're in the process right now down in Quonset, right, to be connecting in those lines that are going to be necessary as we're building Revolution Wind as we speak right now in our backyard. We call it the biggest backyard that anybody has in the country. We have a very limited footprint on our side of our state, but we've got the biggest backyard, and they call it the Atlantic Ocean. So we're very happy about that. Rhode Island and Massachusetts earlier this month, and I think this is really important for those that are listening here, to make sure that we are coordinating with each other in each state. I think those partnerships are so critically important. Earlier this month, we announced the selection of a 2,878 megawatt of offshore wind. The first coordinated effort of its kind, 200 megawatts will go to Rhode Island for the project, empowering an additional 125,000 homes on top of the close to 300,000 households that will receive their electric power through the Revolution Wind. So you can see how we're mounting the numbers in our state to meet that Act on Climate goal. As you can see, Rhode Island has been busy creating programs, projects that work towards achieving the goals on the Act on Climate and reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2033. And our partnership with the Speaker Saccacci, along with Dominic Ruggiero, our President of the Senate, has been integral in terms of working together and making sure that we're connecting every dot that we can in the state to make these goals happen. So I thank the reps and senators that are here today with us, and please extend our thanks to all your colleagues in the House and the Senate. That's why I'm actually thrilled to be welcoming Secretary Granholm here again. Jennifer, it's great to have you here. We hope that you feel as though Rhode Island is a good place for you to visit, you know, when you have a little downtime. But we don't expect that downtime to come anytime soon. Look, you've done a great, an amazing job. The Biden-Harris administration, with lifting up middle-class families, works in Rhode Island. And it works in a really important way. And that's what the Rhode Island 2030 plan is all about. That's what I learned in 365 about education, where we want an every home, every day learning matters. This is all building into this overall objective of raising incomes and personal wealth in the state of Rhode Island. So please join me in welcoming Secretary Granholm to the stage to discuss how this program impacts Rhode Island and the rest of the country. So thank you so much, sir. Gov, you guys are doing, you are doing an amazing job here. You know, you, your team, obviously, thank you to the IBEW here. How many of you in the audience are connected to this Union Hall? All right, all right. Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing to obviously build out this clean energy infrastructure, offshore wind and all that. And thank you for what you're doing to recruit, because we need more and more and more members to be able to do all the work that the Gov was describing and more across the country. So, so glad to be here. So glad to be here to talk about what the Biden-Harris administration is doing in partnership with Rhode Island on making sure that energy efficiency gets to everybody. And so let me just start here by saying, and I'm going to, if I pop down here, you can, you all can see me, right? I feel like I want to be attached to a screen. But you know, there's a ton of all of these technologies that are happening and that are being deployed, which is great. But often the folks who are able to afford heat pumps or solar panels or induction stoves are folks who are at the higher end, right, of income. And so we want to make these kind of products accessible. But here's the deal. If you look right now at solar adoption, folks with over 120% of the area median income adopt at three times the rate, not really a surprise, I suppose, right, to you. But that's not fair. It's not, it's not equitable. And so this is part of what Solar for All, which is the EPA 50 million that is coming your way is, is addressing. It's part of what our changes to the weatherization assistance program, which is adding the ability to add solar on homes. That's part of what we're addressing. So the thing is, though, is that if you look at the annual income of the poorest Americans, if what we consider at the Department of Energy to be energy burdened is if you're spending 6% of your income on energy, that's considered to be energy burdened. You know what it is here? 18%. So if you're making $33,000 a year, this is the lowest income Rhode Islanders, you may be spending up to 18% of your income, which is why this program we're talking about today is so important. What that means is if you're making that low amount of money, you're maybe spending up to $500 a month on energy. That's not acceptable. Not acceptable, right, Gov? Absolutely not. Okay. So what are we doing about it? This is what is very, to me, exciting, especially given these kind of headlines, which is, you know, the heat, extreme heat, extreme weather. You know, we've got bigger storms, hotter, you know, and that makes people vulnerable. So it's not just cost, but it's also safety. It's also, you know, making sure that people have comfort in their homes. So what if we flipped the script? That's how we were thinking about it. That's how come we're partnering with you, because we're going to flip the script to give power to everyday citizens who may not otherwise, power to lower their bills, right? And power as well. So this is just a video of a few conversations that I've had with those who have taken advantage of weatherization programs. I get gas bills that were more than my house payment. She was literally, I teased her. She was trying to keep the neighborhood. The ductwork in the attic was disconnected. She had no insulation. So would you recommend weatherization to other people? Absolutely. Like I said, it's a game changer. We decided we want to move to induction. It's just, it's more efficient. It's safer for the kids. And yeah, we love it. Now you have more than one heat pump. Correct. Yeah. So this summer we installed the central heat pump. Why did you need another heat pump? We wanted to stop using our oil. How much you're saving now as a result of the heat pumps? Yeah, it's about $3,500 a year that we're saving. I've noticed my bill, it was like, it usually ran like $180-ish. So you started at $180 and you ended at $86? Yes. So it could have more than it had? Mm-hmm. Wow! That's amazing! The reason that my energy bills are as low as they are is that I also have rooftop solar in this old house. So, for example, last month in September into October here in Wisconsin, my utility company owed me $30. And that's including the powering of my electric vehicle. Electric bill down from like $210 to under $70. Wow! Cut more than in half. Yes, ma'am. Water bill, because of the work they did, from $120, $170, now I'm paying below $60. Oh my gosh! Gas bill, because our heat, central heat and air, but the heat was controlled by gas. Yeah. From $120, and we're down below $70. Oh my gosh! Even in Willis. Community action agencies, you see this all the time, right? People who are actually saving money. And the question is, how do we democratize that opportunity to save people money? So, the president and the vice president have been obsessed about how we can lower costs for people. And this is one way we can lower costs for people. So here, this, how we can lower energy bills, there's a series of policies that have been adopted at the federal level to be able to do that. Weatherization, of course, we just talked about for folks on average. Here in Rhode Island, I think it's $68,000 a year, I think it's 60% of your area median income that you would qualify for weatherization. That's one policy. Tax credits. So, in other words, if you wanted to put solar on your roof and you're not in that income bracket, everybody's eligible to get a 30% tax credit. Not just tax deduction, but you get paid tax credit off the top to be able to install solar. And then the third way is through rebates. That's what we're talking about today. And here, it's eligible for those who earn less than $90,000 a year for a family. So, what Rhode Island has smartly done is to coordinate what they are doing with weatherization and with the other programs that you have at the state level with the federal program, the rebates program. And so, that means, this is really the big announcement, is that we are awarding Rhode Island $32 million for home energy rebates. And this is just part one. Because you're going to come back and you have a second part to enhance it even further to go a little bit higher income, and that's going to happen at the beginning of 2025. So, it'll be over $60 million that Rhode Island is getting to lower the costs for real people at home, which is fantastic. So, what does this mean? It means that people have to call this phone number. You know, it's super important that people know how to access this. We want to make it as easy as possible. So, if folks out there want to know, do I qualify? What would I get? That website and that phone number is the first place you go. And they can hook you up with your local community action agency, et cetera. So, the first thing you do is, once you go there, you can find out where your community action agency is. There's six, did you say seven? Seven community action agencies in Rhode Island. They are geographically bound. And so, to find out where your community action is, you go to that website. You connect with the community action agency. They will help you to get an assessment. How much money can I save on my home? And you have to have a professional come in and tell you what that looks like. So, you get a home energy assessment to find out what kind of work needs to be done to save you money. And then you just install and save. Again, energy.ri.gov. 1-401-714-3484. Okay. Just to give folks an idea about what the savings breakdown is. So, for example, you can save about 372 annually with weatherization. That seems like a low number to me, given the people that I've talked to. But anyway, that's what they say on average across the country. $1,500 you can save if you get a heat pump installed. These are annual. 550 with a heat pump water heater. 2,700 if you decide to take advantage of rooftop solar with that tax credit. So, annually, you might save $5,122 a year. Now, when you're on a fixed income, that is a good savings. That's a good amount for folks. Which is, you know, it's pretty exciting because, honestly, saving money is everything. For those who are looking to switch out their car, their car broke down, and they decide that they may be looking at an EV. First of all, there's a lot of EV models that are down into the $20,000s. You could even lease one and get this credit off the top at the dealership of $7,500. You buy an EV, you don't have to wait for it and file your taxes at the dealership. They'll take $7,500 off if it's made in the United States. So, that's important. If you get a used one, it's $4,000 off. So, you save on buying. And then, if you use an electric vehicle, you save on gas as well, obviously. And in Rhode Island, the average amount people drive, I was looking on the website, it's like 9,900 miles per year is what your average Rhode Islander does. So, you can save $680 for fuel savings. That includes charging it up at home. $600 for EV maintenance because there are far fewer parts in an EV. So, that's potentially another $1,200 saved per year for everyday citizens if they decide to swap out. And then, of course, there's the other benefits like jobs. All of these rebates. This is part of a rebate program that's not just going to Rhode Island. It's available in all 50 states. And it's about $9 billion that was part of the President's bipartisan infrastructure law. And as a result, 50,000 new jobs just for this particular program, which is pretty cool. And then, making sure that we're doing this right, I just want you to know that lowering energy costs is one piece of what the Biden-Harris administration has been focused on in how we can reduce costs for people. So, energy is one. But there's also capping prescription drug costs, $35 a month. Student loan forgiveness, some of you know. Eliminating junk fees, you've seen some of that. Capping housing costs, lowering gas prices. By the way, 19% drop since 2022. Your gas prices are like $3.05 a gallon here, which is amazingly wonderful. And inflation down from 9% to 2.5%. So, there's been all of this activity on the part of the Biden-Harris administration to lower prices for people on a real level. And if you dial back, it's all part of a longer-term strategy to build the middle class from the bottom up and the middle out, right? And so, I just have this stat right here. I just wanted to sit with you for a minute. Nearly 16 million jobs have been created since this administration came into power. 16 million jobs is more than any presidential administration in any term in the history of the United States. It is a huge number of jobs created. A lot of those in the building construction and clean energy space, but that's overall. The biggest manufacturing comeback since the 1950s, just in the column of energy, over 800 factories have opened up across the country since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law in communities all across the country. And over 800, the amount of investment, both public and private, to be able to create the incentives for these factories to be opened up, is almost half a trillion dollars. That's just so much. It's unbelievable. But 800 factories is like a new factory announcing they're coming to America every two days. Every two days we're expanding in America, which is, I love this as the former governor of Michigan because I was governor at a time when factories were leaving and this president said, no, no, no, we're going to attract them back. You guys have been a manufacturing state. You understand the importance of how manufacturing is often the backbone of an economy. Bringing those manufacturing jobs back is huge. Lowest black and Hispanic Latino unemployment rate in history under this administration. Record high stock market for those who have them. Record small business applications under this administration. I know a lot of people talk about previous administration and blah, blah, blah. I can't get into much of a comparison except to say that under this administration, this economy, all the markers are moving in the right direction. We've got to continue to make that happen and that's no guarantee with a president. Okay, Rhode Island. What does it look like here? All those dots reflect businesses that have opened up in Rhode Island since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration as a result of the incentives that are in the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. You've got all sorts of offshore wind, obviously. Look at the blue on other and the blue on offshore wind. It's kind of indistinguishable, isn't it? Didn't mean for that to happen, but the bottom line is you get the gist. There's a lot going on. Of course, you all know better than anybody what this means in terms of how these jobs relate to one another. You've got the construction starting on the offshore wind foundation components factory. You've got Blount Boats delivering new CTV to American Offshore Services, Port Prov, Inc's deal to develop and fund East Providence Marine Terminal, Rhode Island, Connecticut's first utility-scale offshore wind farm completes installation. I mean, you're seeing this cluster effect here in jobs created because you've got leadership that has decided to take advantage of that big backyard, which is amazing, and take advantage, and private sector taking advantage of all of the incentives that have been built into the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. And then Oersted building trade unions, and Oersted agreed to build American offshore wind energy industry with American labor. We love that, right? Yes, of course we do. There is an old American priest who once said that home is heaven for beginners. What he meant by that was that you know, when you go home at night, it is a place that you want to be safe and at peace and comfortable in your own little slice of heaven. And not everybody has that. But what we're trying to do here in partnership with your governor and Rhode Island is to bring that slice of heaven home for everybody. We don't want it to be a place of stress. We want it to be a place of nurturing. So thank you to the GOV for your leadership in making this happen, being on the leading edge of states that are deploying these rebates. And I think I'm to call our panelists up to the stage. So thanks everybody. I think all the microphones are on. And before we begin, I do just want to give a shout out in terms of Karen Bradbury, Steve Chabowski, Georgia Chania, Natalie, and Terry Brooks. If you guys could just stand up for a quick second. These are the guys that did the application, worked on the program, long hours. I can't thank them enough for all the work that they did. And also Kaylee and the Department of Energy team. Yeah, can our team stand up too? Our Department of Energy team stand up as well. Yay! Working together. So thank you guys for all your help and looking forward to working on the next application and getting that approved. So again, thank you Secretary and the Governor for being here today and for participating in this discussion. We're very excited to be launching this program. We are technically first in New England to launch this program. So we're very excited about that. I just want to ask a couple of just general questions to you guys in terms of the landscape of Rhode Island and also at the federal level. So the first question I'll pose to the Governor. Governor, Rhode Island has been very successful in implementing energy efficiency programs. So could you just maybe just high level just kind of walk through why we're utilizing these federal dollars and what we're launching today in terms of leveraging, as the Secretary said, the federal dollars and integrating them into the state's activities? Well, I think there's two reasons. One, it's good for the environment, certainly hitting the act on climate legislation that I passed. But it's also really good for the economy. And I think the Secretary really outlined it well why we see this as a great opportunity. So as we're trying to raise incomes, part of raising incomes or having more money at the end of the week is actually saving money, too. So the idea that we can put forward a strategy with your office, with our DEM and our General Assembly to actually do both of those issues, our act on climate, the goals we've set on 30, 40, and 50, the idea of 2033, which I said, which means that we want all our electric applications to be done with renewable energy. Good for the environment, but for us, the idea of our goals and our 2030 plan is to which we have a road to prosperity which I announced in January of my State of the State, which is raising incomes and personal wealth. And I'm so happy that you had that last piece about the value of home ownership, Secretary, because we are really, we've been talking about, I've been talking about home ownership now for several months, if not a couple of years. And we have a bond on the ballot this year, $120 million bond that's going to help us not only help build inventory, but also is going to target a good chunk of that for its first time home ownership. So it's going to be really good to see whether we can partner in the energy that we use. I can see right now in that area that some of the refrigerators or the stoves through this program could actually, we could kind of really partner in in a way where what you're bringing to the table and what we're trying to get done really match really well. Perfect. Thank you, Governor. This question's for Elizabeth. Some folks in the audience may not be familiar with what a community action agency partnership is. How would you describe the work that you do? And as we're here to learn more about the home energy rebate program, what are the steps that you want the audience to take away for starting this process? Hi, everyone. Community action partnerships are the face of the community. They are the trusted place for our residents to come and get the services that they need. We service our communities. We have a lot of different programs from the weatherization program, LIHEAP program, the AM program, food pantries. We have a variety of services. The best thing that we want to make sure that our residents know that this program is in Rhode Island, that the savings that they're going to get, the information, their house are going to be more efficient. And we're going to do that by educating our population and educating our landlords, making sure that they understand the program, making sure that they know the process, making sure that we do those applications, that they connect with the right people to get this savings and energy. So we are the face of the community and more likely we are the trust agency in our communities. Perfect. Thank you, Elizabeth. This question is for Secretary Granholm. This is from Caitlin Sanford of Climate Action Rhode Island. Despite the incentives in the IRA and state level incentives, heating and cooling from electricity, including heat pumps, is often still more expensive than gas in our market. What can be done to help about this accelerate electrification? This lowering of prices for people is just so utterly critical. One of the things that happened in the bipartisan infrastructure law, there's three components to this investing in America agenda. One is the bipartisan infrastructure law, one is the Inflation Reduction Act and the third is the Chips and Science Act. And together they are really the foundation for this investing in America agenda. But you can't invest in America if you're not investing in the opportunity for everyday citizens to reduce their prices too. So one of the things that happened for the weatherization program, for example, is that it was plussed up 10 times to be able to serve 10 times more people. Normally on a regular year, you'd get about $1.5 billion for the weatherization program. You got $1.5 million but you got 10 times that to be able to serve more people. And that's part of this whole agenda. Can I just say one other thing? Part of this agenda is also about making sure that everyday citizens raise their incomes. You have a guy who's just focused on raising incomes, you introduced me to. And in order to do that, that means they've got to have good paying middle class jobs. I talked about the half a trillion dollars that has been invested. Some public but largely private sector as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States. They've come to the United States or companies have decided to expand here because they get a 30% tax credit if they build a manufacturing facility here. All of that investment, 81% of that investment has gone to counties that are below the area median income. 81% of that investment. 86% of that investment have gone to communities that have lower than average college rates, 86%. So the whole point of this, just to get back to it about costs, is to try to raise incomes for people and lower energy costs for people but by making sure that we lift all boats across the country in every pocket of America. And that's why I feel so proud to work for this administration because they've embedded structural equity into these laws that invest in America and invest in citizens. Thank you, Secretary. We're honored to be hosting this event at IBW Union Hall today. Wayne, thanks again for all your help over the last several days in getting this event booked with us. Electrical workers are the backbone of our clean energy economy and have for the last multiple decades. And we've had a close working relationship with IBW and other trades over the past decade in terms of our energy development. Governor, what has the state been doing to scale the state's contractor network so that we have more skilled workers implementing these rebates, our union signatories? I think it's very important that we make the connections, Chris, not just in the union halls but outside the union halls. We are investing in apprenticeship programs that are really critical to our state in terms of the number of people that we're going to need as we move forward on the infrastructure in particular. But we're also integrating strategies with our higher ed. Shannon Gilkey, who's working with Matt Weldon, our Department of Labor director, are doing programs that we call Road to Prosperity. And in this Road to Prosperity, it is creating pathways for careers and talking about our Learn 365 plan, which we have a plan that we want in Every Home, Every Day, Learning Matters. And we're investing a great deal of money with federal dollars with 38 out of 39 communities who have signed down with me to help us have stronger results in our math and reading scores right through K-12 and then leading into college. So this ReConnect program that we have right now that is allowing people who have started degrees or started apprenticeship programs who haven't completed them, we've created funding that allows families to actually do that. So if they need a car repair or they need a babysitter or whatever they need that might be standing in the way, we're ReConnecting thousands of people in the state of Rhode Island who have started some form of a degree, whether it's an associate or four-year or an apprenticeship program, back into the education at our community college at Rhode Island College and also our URI. So I think, Chris, really, you can't expect any one person or any one group to actually complete the work that we have set up with these aggressive goals that we have in our 2030 plan. You need to make sure that everybody is aligned and that includes our labor, our union labor in terms of making sure that we are not only taking care of those who are currently in the workforce but how are we going to replace the people that are either coming out or actually add to the number that we're going to need because of the direct investments that we're making and a lot of it has to do with what the Secretary brings to the table but also our congressional delegation. I haven't heard them mentioned yet and I usually do get to the microphone and say, you know, read White House ammo and magazine and thank you very much. Thank you, Governor. The next question for the Secretary is from Michael Rose of Climate Jobs Rhode Island. Thanks to the Biden administration, federal investments are being leveraged to expand access to family sustaining careers and clean energy. What ways are the U.S. DOE able to backstop the labor standard compliance to recipients of DOE funds who may be seeking ways to skirt labor standards? This is another way that embedded in the laws is a preference, really. For example, for organized labor. For example, if you invest in a project to build a factory, if you use project labor agreements, if you pay prevailing wage, if you use registered apprenticeships, you get five times the amount of tax credit that you would if you didn't do that. It makes it irresistible to partner with labor to benefit the community, obviously, and benefit the workers. Let me just give you one example. This and how the decisions about where you locate are so important. Say you're a developer who wants to do a community solar project. If you locate that community solar project in a disadvantaged community, you get your basic 30% tax credit and you get another 10% on top of it. Now it's a 40%. Again, this is a tax credit. If you pay prevailing wage, you have good labor standards, you get another 10%. If you use domestic content, you get another 10%. Now you're talking a 50% tax credit. If you are locating that adjacent to public housing, you get another 10% tax credit. Now you might get 60% tax credit in order to be able to put people to work, use domestic content, all of that in communities that are disadvantaged. That's how these laws are structured to be able to ensure that we really are benefiting all Americans. Thank you. We have one final question. This is also for the Secretary. He's like the VIP up here. One other question that we have that we could also ask Elizabeth in terms of just going back. I don't mean to shame you. I'm mindful of the time because I know we've got to get to a household. This is a question from Michelle Jalbert with the Providence Resiliency Partnership and then Susan Gorlick with the Coalition Center for Environmental Sustainability. Can you share your thinking about best strategies to help communities benefit from a focus on clean energy? As we're working, maybe for Elizabeth, as we're working with the cap agencies with these dollars and electric stoves and electric heat pump dryers and renewables, from your perspective, what can we do or target? It's more just in terms of how do we help communities that you guys are directly engaging with on these programs in terms of the focus on clean energy, in terms of as we're about to gear up with these programs, how do we really focus in terms of getting as much of these incentives out into those households that are going to be looking at these programs? Education and partnership are the keys. Educating the community. Partnering with our contractors, with our funders, with our organizations in the community. Getting that information out. Making sure that they understand it. Our weatherization orders do a great job assessing every household that they go. They also are very good at giving information, telling them, go to the office, let's do this. You qualify for this program. You qualify for that. The overall is education and outreach. That's how we're going to get this information out to the community. Perfect. Thank you, Elizabeth. Final question for the Secretary. This comes from Aislinn Hanley of Climate Jobs Rhode Island. Are there existing federal plans to improve regional or national transmission to modernize our grid for renewable energy? If not, any best practices to do so? Absolutely there are. In fact, you guys got a big chunk to modernize your grid and actually to help the connection with offshore wind, which is great. We have to add transmission lines. We have to upgrade transmission lines. We've got huge problems with NIMBY and all of that that we've all run across. I'm proud to say that at the beginning of this administration, there were about 300 miles of high voltage direct transmission lines in the mix. Now there's about 2,000. We've cut the time for permitting those transmission lines in half. We're really funding things like this is a little bit nerdy, but the IBEW gets this. The fact that you can use different materials and put twice the energy across a transmission line by something called reconductoring, you don't have to put up your infrastructure, you don't have to get permitting, etc. You can just restring the wire, essentially, but with better materials and get twice the power across, that is an innovation that we are funding all across America. The fact that you can use technology to tell the electrons where to go and when to go there, it's called dynamic line rating. We're funding those technologies to make the existing grid more efficient in addition to permitting additional so that we can get additional clean generation on the grid. You've got a goal by 2033 to have a clean grid. Our goal in the federal side is 100% clean electricity by 2035. That means we all have to do a lot to get more clean energy on the grid. The good news is this year we're projected to add 38 gigawatts. That's basically 18 Hoover dams to the electric grid this year. 96% is clean energy because of the incentives in the Investing in America agenda. This year is a record broke last year's record because last year was a record year as well. We are adding all of these clean resources to the grid to help you reach your goal and to help us reach ours. I want to thank you all for participating in this panel today. We are on time on schedule as I know we're going to get to a household visit. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.