U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced a new $450 million program designed to catalyze a nationwide energy upgrade that experts estimate could save $100 million annually in utility bills for households and businesses. The Recovery Act's "Retrofit Ramp-Up" program will pioneer innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in a variety of communities.

The Request for Information (RFI) being issued today is for competitively selected local energy efficiency projects. This competitive portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program will target community-scale retrofit projects that make significant, long-term impacts on energy use and can serve as national role models for grassroots energy efficiency efforts.

More information can be found here:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/daily.cfm/hp_news_id=202
http://doe-iips.pr.doe.gov/iips/faopor.nsf/1be0f2271893ba198525644b006bc...