While just a bit tardy to give the American economy of 2009 a jolt, a $10.4 million stimulus grant is just now being put to work getting Austin residents into electric cars at a steal.
Pecan Street, an environmental nonprofit based on the University of Texas campus, is using the grant to set up a kind of energy use laboratory in the recently developed mixed-use neighborhood where the Mueller Municipal Airport used to be, according to a story posted today by Texas Tribune.
Part of the experiment will be to study energy use by the Mueller residents lucky enough to get a $7,500 stimulus rebate on top of the $7,500 federal tax credit to buy one of the 100 electricity and gas hybrid Chevy Volts the company made available for the project.
Of the 200 residents taking part in the study, 140 have expressed an interest in the cars which have a base price of about $41,000 before all of the taxpayer support.
Best Buy, Intel, LG Electronics, Sony, SunEdison, Whirlpool and others will also be supplying appliances and solar panels for use and study by the Mueller neighbors. Researchers are also studying water and gas use by participants.
Texas Watchdog has written extensively about the federal stimulus in Texas, including “green energy” projects in Bedford and elsewhere that will take decades to recoup the $52 million in taxpayer funds used to build them.
Part of the experiment will be to study energy use by the Mueller residents lucky enough to get a $7,500 stimulus rebate on top of the $7,500 federal tax credit to buy one of the 100 electricity and gas hybrid Chevy Volts the company made available for the project.
Of the 200 residents taking part in the study, 140 have expressed an interest in the cars which have a base price of about $41,000 before all of the taxpayer support.
Best Buy, Intel, LG Electronics, Sony, SunEdison, Whirlpool and others will also be supplying appliances and solar panels for use and study by the Mueller neighbors. Researchers are also studying water and gas use by participants.
Texas Watchdog has written extensively about the federal stimulus in Texas, including “green energy” projects in Bedford and elsewhere that will take decades to recoup the $52 million in taxpayer funds used to build them.
***
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Chevy Volt by flickr user doc_savage_jr, used via a Creative Commons license.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Chevy Volt by flickr user doc_savage_jr, used via a Creative Commons license.
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