Hi David,

Thanks again for all your help.  I got it all working.  

Here are the various important code snippets for anyone else trying to do the same.  I bolded parts which were important.

VisualForce Email Template
 

<messaging:emailTemplate subject="Support Packages" recipientType="Contact" relatedToType="Account">
<messaging:htmlEmailBody >
Hi {!recipient.name},

<P>To continue to provide the highest level of service possible to our.. blah blah

<!-- DO NOT MODIFY THE LINE BELOW: IT INSERTS THE COST BREAKDOWN TABLE -->
<c:SupportContractPriceBreakdown componentValue="{!relatedTo.Name}"/>

<P>Enrollment in a support contract is not mandatory to continue... blah blah

</messaging:htmlEmailBody>
</messaging:emailTemplate>

Controller

The VisuaForce code assigned componentValue to the account name...

Then we use the <apex:attribute tag's assignTo to pass the account name to the Apex Class.

Note: all variables with {!varName} (like the ones in the table below) will be replaced with the value returned in the Apex class' getVarName() method.

<apex:component controller="supportContractPriceCalculator" access="global">

<apex:attribute name="componentValue" description="Attribute on the component."
type="String" required="required" assignTo="{!accountNameValue}"/>

<table>
<tr><td>Account Name:<td>{!accountNameValue}
<tr><td>Support Package Expires:&nbsp;&nbsp;<td>{!expirationDate}
<tr><td>Total System Cost:<td>${!totalCost}
<tr><td>Basic (7%):<td>{!basicPrice}
<tr><td>Premier (13%):<td>{!premierPrice}
<tr><td>Premier+API (17%):<td>{!premierPlusApiPrice}
</table>

</apex:component>

Apex Class
Important thing here was that when performing the soql query you have to list field in the Account object you want to be able to access.  I found this strange at first since you're creating an Account object... but i can see why they would do this for performance reasons.  In otherwords... there doesn't appear to be a way to do a Select * from Account where name = "Kansas".  Also, if you want to use a variable in an soql query you prefix it with a ':'.

I imagine there is a way to pass the Account object from VisualForce all the way up the chain rather then just the account name and then performing a soql query here...  I played around with it a bit and couldn't get it to work so just went back to this method for now.

public class supportContractPriceCalculator{

private Account contractAccount;
private String accountNameValue;

public supportContractPriceCalculator() {

}


public double getTotalCost() {
double retVal = 0;
if( contractAccount.Total_Cost__c != null ) {
retVal = contractAccount.Total_Cost__c;
}
return Double.valueOf(retVal);
}



public String getBasicPrice() {
return '$' + String.valueOf(getTotalCost() * 0.07);
}

public String getPremierPrice() {
return '$' + String.valueOf(getTotalCost() * 0.13);
}

public String getPremierPlusApiPrice() {
return '$' + String.valueOf(getTotalCost() * 0.17);
}

public String getExpirationDate() {
if( contractAccount.Expiration_Date__c == null ){
return 'Unknown';
}
else {
return contractAccount.Expiration_Date__c.format();
}
}

/**
* Alternate setter method which allows an account object to be passed in.
* Currently isn't used.
*/
public void setAccount( Account pAccount ) {
contractAccount = pAccount;
}

public Account getAccount() {
return contractAccount;
}

/**
* This method takes in a string and uses it to perform an soql query to get all the
* support contract related fields such as expiration date, total cost, current package etc.
* @param s is the account name.
*/
public void setAccountNameValue (String s) {
accountNameValue = s;
if( accountNameValue != null ) {
contractAccount = [select Name, Account.Expiration_Date__c, Account.Total_Cost__c from Account where Name = :s];
}
else {
contractAccount = new Account();
contractAccount.Name = 'No Account Selected';

}
}

public String getAccountNameValue() {
return contractAccount.Name;
}
}