Jul 10 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Diane Dietz The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

The question is a pointed one in Oregon, which has the second-highest jobless rate in the nation, and even more so in Lane County, where the rate is higher still: Where are the jobs promised by the five-month-old, $787 billion federal stimulus bill?

The federal government has, for example, awarded the Oregon Department of Energy $42 million to use on energy-generating or energy-saving projects, such as solar power and energy retrofits. But the department has yet to spend a nickel.

"The point is, now is the time to spend it," said Josh Skov, co-founder of Good Company, a consulting firm based in Eugene.

"Either the money is going to be spent in time to get us out of recession, or unemployment will just continue to rise because the money won't be spent very quickly."

Spending large sums of federal money takes time and care, said energy department spokesman Lou Torres.

"People got the impression that we were going to press a button and the money was going to start to flow," he said. "But it doesn't work that way in government, quite honestly. We're trying to get it out there as fast as we can and trying to make sure we do it right."

In Oregon, local governments, schools and nonprofit groups began submitting proposals -- 1,100 in all -- last April for a share of the state energy department's $42 million. Eugene-based solar panel installer Advanced Energy Systems reports that a dozen of its clients applied for the funds, proposing projects valued from $50,000 to $1 million. But the applicants are still waiting for a reply.

Spending $42 million is a tall order for a small state agency, Torres said.

"On a good year, we'll administer $500,000 in federal dollars, so you can see this is quite a lot more than we usually do.

"There was nothing we could use as a precedent to prepare us for this. We were basically creating this on the go. And we were doing the best we can," Torres said.

The department also was dealing with some internal changes. In mid-May, Gov. Ted Kulongoski abruptly replaced seven-year energy department director Michael Grainey with an acting director, Mark Long -- a transplant from the state's building codes division.

"It was kind of a big mess," said Eloise Jeffers, fiscal assistant at the energy department.

The department also didn't have the personnel needed to spend the money quickly, so the Legislature approved the hiring of a "federal stimulus manager" and a half-dozen other employees to help divvy up the $42 million.

The governor's ambition is to use the stimulus to burnish the state's green credentials. "Where we're trying to really create a new, transformative energy infrastructure, we're making sure we make really smart investments," said Courtney Warner of the Governor's Economic Recovery Executive Team.

The energy projects were held up, additionally, because the U.S. Department of Energy has been slow to define its criteria and outline its reporting demands.

"We had to get some direction," Torres said. "We couldn't move too far too fast because the Feds weren't ready to move that fast either. They've never done anything like this, too."

"Gov. Kulongoski ... wants to be sure not only is the money getting to where we need it to get -- but that we were able to justify the projects. Accountability is a really big part of this," Torres said.

Skov said accountability shouldn't trump the need to speedily put people to work.

"There's obviously some sort of tension between doing it quickly and doing it well, but at the same time there are people who would like to just do it -- and have it done fair to middling -- and stimulate the economy and not torture ourselves about doing it slowly and carefully," he said.

The energy department is ready to get started, Torres said, "this week or in the next day or two."

Officials will call applicants whose projects match the federal criteria and are immediately ready to build. "A lot of folks will get letters that say 'Please apply now,' " he said. The state should be able to give money for those projects within 90 days, he said.

The department will ask candidates with more extensive or expensive projects to fill out a detailed application form -- which should soon be ready, he said. The state will give applicants 30 days to turn in that paperwork, with the goal of providing the money in coming years.

"It's not going to be implemented in three months," he said. "The projects have to be obligated by Sept. 30, 2010, but the money has to be spent by March 31, 2012, so we've got quite a lot of time."

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