Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas has completed more than 30 percent of its stimulus-funded home weatherization projects and so qualifies for a new round of funding, the U.S. Department of Energy said today.

The state has weatherized nearly 2,700 low-income homes with money from the 2009 federal stimulus, plus more than 1,500 homes with annual funding from the Energy Department’s Weatherization Assistance Program.

The state previously received access to half of the $48.1 million allocated to it from the stimulus for home weatherization, and as a result of its progress it now will have access to the full amount, Energy Department officials said in a news release.

Nationwide, about 25,000 homes are being weatherized each month, officials said. The program was estimated to have weatherized 200,000 low-income homes by August.

Officials said the program supported more than 14,000 jobs in the third quarter of this year, including nearly 140 jobs in Arkansas.