Five McKean County Businesses to Receive Energy Efficiency Grants

HARRISBURG – The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced that five McKean county businesses, along with 85 other small businesses in 39 counties, will receive energy efficiency grants to help “improve energy efficiency, reduce pollution and lower operating costs.”

DEP Secretary John Hanger said, “Small-business owners face many challenges including how to reinvest their hard-earned dollars. In recent years, a growing number of small-business owners have realized that investing in projects that reduce pollution and energy use produce immediate and long-term positive results. Owners can improve their bottom lines, allowing them to make significant investments in their own futures, and the economic and environmental future of Pennsylvania, as well.”

Pennsylvania’s Small Business Advantage program provides small businesses (those with fewer than 100 employees) with 50-percent matching reimbursement grants of up to $7,500 to implement projects that will save at least 20 percent annually in pollution prevention or energy-related costs. Since 2004, the Small Business Advantage Grant program has invested $6.7 million in 1,220 small businesses.

Among those businesses chosen in McKean county are:

• Kane Manor Inc. – $7,500 to purchase and install heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades to conserve energy.
• SMP Rx & Home Medical – Kane – $6,009 to purchase and install heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades to conserve energy.
• Zook Motors Inc. – $6,161 to purchase and install efficient lighting to conserve energy.
• W. E. Swanson Agency Inc. – $7,500 to purchase and install a high efficiency boiler, lighting and insulation to conserve energy.
• Dangelo’s Custom Built LLC – $7,500 to purchase and install upgraded insulation and high efficiency lighting to conserve energy.

Also included was Innovative Sintered Metals in Elk county, which received $7,500 to purchase and install efficient lighting to conserve energy.

The 90 projects in 40 counties will receive a total of $564,291 and leverage an additional $1.1 million in private investments. In the first year, they will have a cumulative savings of $521,782 in operating expenses related to reductions in energy and pollution. The savings include:

• 1.3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity–enough to power 130 homes;
• 110,421 therms of natural gas;
• 28,000 gallons of propane;
• 26,000 gallons of kerosene and fuel oil; and
• 40,741 gallons of diesel fuel.

In addition, the projects will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly five million pounds, equivalent to the total energy used by 190 homes or removing 425 passenger vehicles from the roads.