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Like too many Americans, when the recession hit Annette Herrera found herself without a job. For two and a half years she worked the phones and culled the classifieds, searching for an opportunity to work and earn a paycheck.

Read about Power4Vets -- a program funded by Recovery Act money through the Energy Department’s Smart Grid Workforce Training program, which is helping to prepare the next generation of workers in the utility and electric industries for smart grid-related jobs.

As the first bike sharing system in Texas, San Antonio’s B-Cycle addresses two top concerns in the city: providing opportunities to improve personal health and giving active transportation choices to residents and visitors.

In 2010, seven cities in King County, Washington -- known as the C-7 New Energy Partnership -- joined forces with local utility Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and energy management software company OPOWER to help nearly 100,000 residents reduce their home energy consumption.

As one of the windiest states in the country, Kansas is a great place to harness wind and solar power. And through the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, the Resourceful Kansas team is teaching the rest of the state about all the technologies that are out there.

California's San Mateo County gives residents more affordable access to energy upgrades, reducing home energy use and creating new jobs in the process.

Houston-based Texas Medical Center recently celebrated the completion of an energy-efficient, 48 megawatt combined heat and power system. The Medical Center projects that new system, funded in part by a $10 million Recovery Act grant, will help save about $200 million in energy costs over the next 15 years — a big number, even by Texas standards.

The Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians are using their grant funds to make some much needed retrofits and upgrades.

Residents of St. Peters, Missouri are seeing several improvements in their community thanks to a $512,800 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). The grant, which is funded by the Recovery Act, has allowed the town to implement three energy efficiency programs that will save residents and the city money, while reducing energy waste.

King County uses $6.1 million to make investments that dramatically reduce energy waste, improve the quality of life for the residents of an area senior housing community, and lead regional efforts to install electric vehicle charging stations.

Check out this video where Mayor Chris Coleman explains how St. Paul is using grant money to create jobs while cutting waste and saving energy.

Thanks to a $1.2 million grant from the Department’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, the city of Boise, Idaho, will replace and install 1,450 LED streetlights by the end of this month. The project is projected to save $1.2 million over the next 15 years.