BLACKWATER DOES HOME INSULATION?:

Inadequate Oversight Cited in Weatherization Program (MICHAEL COOPER, 12/22/09, NY Times)

The Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, was so concerned by what his investigators found in Illinois that he issued an unusual “management alert” this month, rather than waiting for a final audit report to be issued. The management alert cautioned that the lack of oversight was putting the goals of the weatherization program — which is intended to cut energy use and utility bills — at risk. And it warned that “the safety of homeowners and area residents could be placed in jeopardy if substandard weatherization work goes undetected.”

The alarms about the weatherization program — which were being sounded in the home state of its champion, President Obama, who proposed expanding it before taking office — underscored the challenges in taking a government program and supersizing it with stimulus cash.