July 18, 2013 11:07 AM UTC

New Capitol Geothermal HVAC? Thank The "Failed Stimulus!"

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post's Howard Pankratz reports:

The new geothermal heating and cooling system at the Colorado state Capitol, consisting of water pumped from two wells drilled into the Arapahoe Aquifer more than 850 feet underground, is being brought on line this week and should bring hefty savings on utility bills for the Capitol, officials said Wednesday…

7NEWS adds some more detail about this innovative system, set to make the Colorado Capitol the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified state capitol in the nation:

The building was in need of replacing its current heating and cooling system, [project manager Lance] Shepherd said. Parts of the system were almost 70 years old. Due in large part to a $4.1 million federal grant from the Department of Energy, [Pols emphasis] Colorado was able to install the geothermal system for a price that was just $500,000 more than replacing the system with a traditional HVAC system.

Shepherd said the energy savings will more than pay off that difference. He said the cost savings is anticipated at more than $100,000 in the first year and at $160,000 annually by year 15…

Colorado will become the second state with a geothermal powered Capitol. Idaho is the first with a geologically-active geothermal system.

Well, folks, we looked into that $4 million grant from the federal Department of Energy to the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration. The grant was awarded in January of 2010, from funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project is listed as "more than 50% complete," which should be updated to simply "complete" sometime soon.

Republicans have moved on from discussion of the "stimulus bill" of 2009, presumably confident that they have attached the word "failed" to the word "stimulus" well enough to ensure that is how the ARRA will go down in history. All the while, the overwhelming majority of investments in the stimulus bill quietly fulfilled their purpose: building roads and bridges, fixing up schools, and keeping benefits flowing to millions of unemployed workers. And along the way, the Colorado capitol got a grant to upgrade to a slick new geothermal heating and cooling system–an investment that will pay for itself, starting at $100,000 per year saved and adjusting upward with inflation.

Come to think of it, this really doesn't seem like a "failure" at all.