The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) comprehensive Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) program provides a variety of services to approximately 1,500 businesses, both prime and subcontractors, in the areas of outreach, business assistance, contract compliance, and on-the-job training. The Intercounty Connector (
ICC) project will require a broad variety of DBEs with capacity in many design services and construction trades within the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan regions. The ICC Project Team has developed an aggressive
DBE outreach,
business assistance, and
contract compliance program in order to identify and successfully engage as many DBEs as possible in the design and trade areas needed for the project.
The ICC also has an on-the-job training program aimed at developing full journeyperson status for minorities and women in the highway construction industry. The ICC Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program is designed to provide oversight, guidance, and assistance to DBEs working on the ICC project, and to those who are interested in working on the project. Services to DBEs include, but are not limited to, providing:
assessments of DBEs by specialty trade (NAICS codes) facilitation of contacts with prime contractors and major subcontractors working on the project, as appropriate
a direct link to the Directory of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) currently certified by the Maryland Department of Transportation
a list of ICC prime Design-Build contractors and subcontractors
a roster of firms that have attended various ICC presentations, informational briefings, and other outreach events
identification and publication of the DBE opportunities in each contract
regular contact with resource, trade, and business organizations to assure awareness of pportunities on the project and to facilitate referrals among interested parties
advance notification about outreach events, such as contract-specific Informational Meetings, procurement fairs, and conferences designed to build capacity and to enhance the availability of information about the ICC project.
business assistance, including: resource referrals; Maryland DBE
certification assistance;
business development, insurance, bonding, financing, estimating, bidding,
and contracting techniques; and special requirements associated with
Design-Build contracting
a comprehensive contract compliance and monitoring system to assess
overall progress in achieving DBE participation goals
The ICC Project Team’s primary point of contact for Civil Rights and DBE information is Marvin Eason, ICC Civil Rights Manager, Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). If you have questions or concerns, or would like to have additional information, contact Marvin Eason at MEason@iccproject.com, or by telephone at 301.586.9286. For further information about the ICC DBE program, please refer to the DBE-oriented brochure entitled: The ICC Starts Here: Your Road to Opportunity.
Senate Passes Mortgage Mitigation Bill: Tax Benefits
The Senate passed a bill to help ease the mortgage foreclosure crisis that includes:
- o - large tax breaks for homebuilders and credits for people who buy foreclosed properties,
- o - $4 billion in grants for communities with the highest foreclosure rates to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed properties.
- o - $100 million for pre-foreclosure counseling and stronger loan disclosure requirements.
- o - $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of foreclosed homes.
- o - modernization of the Federal Housing Administration that would enable more homeowners to refinance into loans backed by the Depression-era agency.
- o - $10 billion in tax-free mortgage revenue bonds to help homeowners refinance subprime loans
A House bill steers tax breaks toward first-time home-buyers and investors in low-income rental housing and would have the FHA step in to back $300 billion in refinanced loans for 1 million or more homeowners who otherwise might face foreclosure.
The Bush administration opposes the plans, saying it would make the mortgage mess worse. House Democratic leaders regard the Senate proposal as benefitting businesses rather than homeowners.
Senate Renews Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit
The U.S. Senate passed 88-8 an extension of the renewable-energy production tax credit on April 10th as part of larger Mortgage Foreclosure mitigation bill that was approved too. It was set to expire at the end of this year and is now good through 2009. Extending the tax credits assures that approximately $20 billion in planned renewable energy projects and investments will be made. Homeowners and businesses can offset up to 30 percent of the cost of renewable and efficiency retrofits. The measure now goes to the House where Speaker Pelosi is demanding offsets for the credits. A measure to do so in last year’s energy bill failed.
Net Metering Can Create Green Jobs In 50 States
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (
Section 1251) requires utilities in all fifty states to provide Net Metering:
“Each electric utility shall make available upon request net metering service to any electric consumer that the electric utility serves.”
Net metering is a utility electricity use and payment plan that permits customers generating their own power to be compensated monetarily by allowing the customer’s meter to actually run backwards if the electricity the customer generates is more than they consume. At the end of the billing period, the customer only pays for their net consumption: the amount of resources consumed, minus the amount of resources generated.
There are numerous listings and descriptions of net metering programs:
Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE)
U.S,Department of Energy Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
DukeEnvironmental Law & Policy Institute
American Wind Energy Association
DOE SolarEnergyTechnologies Program
PEWCenter Map
Net Metering Can Finance Solar Power & Green Jobs
Solar power installations and green jobs can be increased by promoting and leveraging
Net Metering. According to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (
H.R.6), Net Metering means “service to an electric consumer under which electric energy generated by that electric consumer from an eligible on-site generating facility and delivered to the local distribution facilities may be used to offset electric energy provided by the electric utility to the electric consumer during the applicable billing period.” Section 1251 the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which AAEA
supported, requires utilties to provide Net Metering:
“Each electric utility shall make available upon request net metering service to any electric consumer that the electric utility serves.”
Walker Architects got it right when they wrote on DesignCommunity.com that:
“Net Metering will help take the edge off the installation cost of Photovoltaic systems. Silicon-based photovoltaic cells (PVs), transform radiation from the sun directly into electricity. Surplus electricity production is reverse metered to the power grid and results in significant reductions in the consumption of traditional fuels. (When and if the rooftop cannot collect enough power for daily use, the rest of the household’s power comes from the utility company.) The problem that must be overcome is the two fold cost; first, we need to efficiently fund the solar rooftop power plant and home improvement loans by homeowners are simply too expensive, second we have to reduce the installation cost. We simply cannot succeed one home owner at a time paying retail prices for the material & labor with taxes and compound interest on top of that. We advocate the construction of the rooftop power plant on top of the roofs of our residential infrastructure by big business taking advantage of net metering law in every state. The cost to install one home owner at a time, for the current typical PV installation, is in the range of 18 to 21 cents per kilowatt hour, about twice as much as conventional energy rates. Tax incentives are essential to cutting the initial cost of installation and net metering, which requires electric companies to buy excess power from the solar rooftop, currently offsets installation costs and reduces the pay back time required. When the system produces more energy than the house requires, the meter literally will spin backwards.”
Walker Architects continue:
The problem that must be overcome is the two fold cost; first, we need to efficiently fund the solar rooftop power plant and home improvement loans by homeowners are simply too expensive, second we have to reduce the installation cost. We simply can not succeed one home owner at a time paying retail prices for the material & labor with taxes and compound interest on top of that. We advocate the construction of the rooftop power plant on top of the roofs of our residential infrastructure by big business taking advantage of net metering law in every state. The cost to install one home owner at a time, for the current typical PV installation, is in the range of 18 to 21 cents per kilowatt hour, about twice as much as conventional energy rates. Tax incentives are essential to cutting the initial cost of installation and net metering, which requires electric companies to buy excess power from the solar rooftop, currently offsets installation costs and reduces the pay back time required. When the system produces more energy than the house requires, “The meter literally will spin backwards.” So far, 26 states have net metering laws. These laws express the direct will of the body politic.
Walker Architects goes on to describe pricing and installation contraints to installing solar panels but concludes that the cost cheaper up front and the price of sunlight will not fluctuate. What we now need is a convenient and effective source of financing to address the highlighted problems cited in the Walker Architects quote. AAEA has developed and is developing mechanisms to help solve these problems. One is Net Metering Backed Securities (NMBS) and another is our Carbon Mercantile Exchange (CMX). Our Carbon Dioxide Reduction (CDR) Program is transportation-based and complements the NMBS concept and the CMX.
AAEA Promoting Solar Power and Green Jobs
Solar power provides about one tenth of one percent of America’s electricity. That’s right: 1/10th of .01. (EIA) We will not go into the many constraints to installing photovoltaic panels on all of our structures; we will just say that photovoltaics should represent a larger percentage of our nation’s electricity generation.
Solar power is an excellent technology for providing green jobs to inner city youth. This is the exciting aspect solar power brings to the table that is not readily available among the other technologies. There are opportunities in the solar sector from manufacturing to sales to training, installation and remote monitoring. Electricity is such an exciting and practical product that training to become an electrician can provide a lifelong skill. At-risk youth should be targeted for more special programs, such as those included in The Green Jobs Act of 2007.
Current renewable-energy tax credits will expire at the end of 2008 if not renewed. Renewal of tax incentives for building and alternative technologies were stripped from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 because they were going to be funded by removing tax credits for oil companies (AAEA did not support this provision). Subsidies do not have to be stripped from oil companies to fund renewal and expansion of energy tax incentives.
The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 (S.2821)extends the investment tax credit for eight more years for businesses. We should add at least $2 billion to this bill in the form of expensing for utilities providing solar power training and jobs via the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) provision in the bill. The bill is cosponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV). AAEA will recruit a sponsor for our amendment.
The expensing provision should be an amendment to the Section 104 Clean Renewable Energy Bonds provision. Under current law, public power and consumer-owned utilities that cannot benefit from tax credits can issue CREBs to help them reduce the cost of renewable energy investments. Under current law, there is a national CREB limitation of $1.2 billion in bonding authority and CREBs must be issued before December 31, 2008. This bill authorizes an additional $400 million of CREBs that may be issued and extends the authority to issue such bonds through December 31, 2009. The bill should be amended to authorize an additional $2 billion and the CREB limitation should be increased to $3.2 billion specifically targeted to expensing green job training and employment. In addition, the bill allocates 1/3 of the additional bonds for qualifying projects of State/local/tribal governments; 1/3 for qualifying projects of public power providers; and 1/3 for qualifying projects of electric cooperatives.
