green cha-ching
Texas' energy-efficient appliance rebate party gets a do-over
Ever tried to throw a blowout party, only to find yourself overwhelmed with an onslaught of guests without an appropriate welcome committee? The thing about parties is that, despite quickly depleted kegs and police busts, people are always willing to give a host a second chance.
And in this instance, that host is the Texas comptroller's office, which is planning a second energy-efficient appliance rebate program to compensate for the chaotic April event, in which swamped bandwidth and phone lines caused less than 55 percent of the $23 million of allotted federal money to be claimed.
"It was pretty obvious that they dropped the ball on April 7," Allen Spelce, a comptroller's office spokesman, told the Austin American-Statesman.
On that day, nearly 78 percent of the phone calls dropped, leaving $10 million in unclaimed funds. Several other states also have unclaimed funds from the $300 million program intended to encourage people to replace older appliances with energy-efficient models.
On Wednesday the office announced it would pay the contracted Minnesota rebate company, Hegelson Enterprises Inc., only a fraction of its original fee — $250,000 of $876,000 — for the April event.
The encore program will be a mail-in rebate system and take place in December or January.
