Iowa’s three investor-owned utilities will spend half as much next year to help low-income Iowans weatherize their homes. San Wong is director of the Iowa Department of Human Rights, the state agency that oversees the program.

Wong says about 12-hundred Iowa homeowners got help last year to make their homes more energy efficient in the winter.

Last year the federal government provided about 13 million dollars and the state’s investor-owned utilities provided nearly six-and-a-half million for the weatherization program. A new state law significantly lowered how much utilities may spend on energy efficiency programs. Critics argued electric customers were unaware how much of their bill was being spent on energy reduction efforts.