A $5 billion federal stimulus program to make low-income homes more energy-efficient has so far made an alarming lack of progress, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Energy said in a report issued today.

Gregory Friedman, whose past criticism was part of a Texas Watchdog report on failures of the Weatherization Assistance Program in Texas, said in his most recent 14-page report that bureaucratic dallying has prevented the program from coming close to meeting its most important goals.

"The job creation impact of what was considered to be one of the department's most 'shovel-ready' projects has not materialized," Friedman wrote."And modest income home residents have not enjoyed the significant reductions in energy consumption and improved living conditions promised as part of the massive Recovery Act weatherization effort."

Friedman's biting critique echoes the conclusions made in a report by the federal General Accounting Office and blogged about here last Thursday.