Those who believed that Colorado’s fast-forward approach, under Gov. Bill Ritter, to building a New Energy Economy would translate into extra dollars from the Obama Administration’s energy stimulus plan should be pretty disappointed today. If anything, we got jobbed.

The state will receive $42.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, to promote energy conservation and improve energy efficiency through measures like weatherproofing homes. That’s on top of the $128.7 million already going to the Governor’s Energy Office for similar programs. $171.3 million is hardly small peanuts. “The awards virtually ensure thousands of new energy-related jobs, more solar collectors atop buildings and fewer tailpipes spewing black plumes,” The Denver Post reported.  But, as the Associated Press reported last week, “Business and political leaders are banking on Colorado’s new energy leadership to give it a big edge in the competition for billions of federal stimulus dollars promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

“The fact is, we’ve gotten a two-year head start on developing a lot of this within the state, and that makes us much more competitive” for federal dollars, Tom Plant, director of the Governor’s Energy Office, told the AP.

A close look at the state-by-state numbers, though, indicates that that head start did not pay off. Essentially the federal government, as might be expected, doled out the multi-billion-dollar funding package according to population - not according to how progressive states’ energy policies are or how many “shovel-ready” projects there are waiting to be funded.

For instance, Texas - the heart of the U.S. oil industry and not exactly a leader in the shift to renewable energy - got $754.5 million in federal energy funding. Colorado’s haul is about 22% of that sum. At 4.9 million residents, Colorado has about 20% the population of the Lone Star State.

There are some discrepancies, naturally. Nevada, home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, got $103 million. That’s 60% of Colorado’s take for a state with about half the population.reports. Cities and municipalities affected by oil and gas operations get about half the severance-tax revenues, and the other half goes to the Department of Natural Resources, for water conservation and environmental programs.

And Wyoming? With only half-a-million residents, Colorado’s neighbor to the north got $47.2 million, 28% of the funding for Colorado. That’s 85 bucks for every man, woman and child in Wyoming, with some left over for the cows as well.

Of course there are several ways to look at the stimulus hand-outs, and this being politics, it’s to be expected that states would get dollar amounts roughly according to their population size, and thus their representation in Congress. It’s unfortunate, though, that the residents of the state where President Obama actually signed the energy legislation last month, and where the Governor has staked his political future on challenging the conventional energy industries while pushing the state toward a sustainable energy future, did not fare any better in the stimulus.

Also worth noting is the fact that, even as the state braces for a federal windfall, severance taxes from oil and gas production are about to nosedive. Those revenues “will plunge 84 percent to $40 million in fiscal year 2010, according to a forecast by economists at the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council,” the Durango Herald

So while the state has its hands out for dozens of millions from the federal government, other dozens of millions are leaking out from the holes in Colorado’s pockets.