Economic, energy, and environmental impact of the Louisiana Energy Fund

The Louisiana Energy Fund is a public–private cooperative endeavor created by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in partnership with the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, Hibernia National Bank and Lehman Brothers to provide publicly funded institutions in the state with low cost, tax exempt financing to implement energy and water conservation projects. In September 2002, the Louisiana Bond Commission authorized the issuance of $15.3 million dollars in tax-exempt bonds to fund seven energy and water retrofit performance contracts. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the expected economic, energy, and environmental impact of the performance contracts. An input–output model is developed to quantify the expected total economic benefit, and based on the terms of the performance contracts, the expected energy and environmental impacts of the program are estimated.