New Cash for Caulkers Program Officially a Go!

I wrote a few weeks ago that a “Cash for Caulkers” program was being considered as part of a jobs bill that the Obama Administration would push in early 2010.  Not only is Cash for Caulkers officially a centerpiece of the jobs bill, but so is clean energy investment.  Below is the entire article.

President Obama proposed a new program Tuesday that would reimburse homeowners for energy-efficient appliances and insulation, part of a broader plan to stimulate the economy.

The administration didn’t provide immediate details, but said it would work with Congress on crafting legislation. Steve Nadel, director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, who’s helping write the bill, said a homeowner could receive up to $12,000 in rebates.

The proposal is part of the President’s larger spending plan, which also includes money for small businesses, renewable energy manufacturing, and infrastructure.

We know energy efficiency “creates jobs, saves money for families, and reduces the pollution that threatens our environment,” Obama said. “With additional resources, in areas like advanced manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels, for instance, we can help turn good ideas into good private-sector jobs.”

The program contains two parts: money for homeowners for efficiency projects, and money for companies in the renewable energy and efficiency space.

The plan will likely create a new program where private contractors conduct home energy audits, buy the necessary gear and install it, according to a staffer on the Senate Energy Committee and Nadel at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Big-ticket items like air conditioners, heating systems, washing machines, refrigerators, windows and insulation would likely be covered, Nadel said.

Consumers might be eligible for a 50% rebate on both the price of the equipment and the installation, up to $12,000, said Nadel. So far, there is no income restriction on who is eligible. That would mean a household could spend as much as $24,000 on upgrades and get half back.

Homes that take full advantage of the program could see their energy bills drop as much as 20%, he said. The program is expected to cost in the $10 billion range.

It’s not clear how the home efficiency plan would be administered – the government may issue rebates to consumers directly, homeowners might get a tax credit, or the program could be run via state agencies.

If consumers have to spend a lot of money up front to get the credit, it could throw a wrench in the works, David Kreutzer, an energy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told CNN.

“This will not be something that’s attractive to people who are having trouble already making their budget payments month to month or week to week,” he said.

To keep consumers from having to spend thousands of dollars before getting reimbursed, Nadel said, one idea is to have contractors or big box retailers pay part of the cost up front.

Fraud issues could also come up, Kreutzer said.

“Any program that is going to run through a third party and is going to distribute billions of dollars needs to have lots of checks and balances to make sure there’s not abuse,” he said.

Nadel noted that as a way to guard against fraud, contractors would have to be certified to participate.

Energy company boost

Obama’s new spending plan also calls for renewable energy companies to get additional support. That could come in the form of loan guarantees – basically, money the government uses to secure loans for startups.

In the original stimulus bill passed earlier this year, $6 billion was earmarked for such loan guarantees. But then lawmakers took away $2 billion to fund Cash for Clunkers – the popular program that paid people to turn in their old cars.

The $4 billion from the original bill has funded about $40 billion in loans, said the staffer on the Senate Energy Committee. Meanwhile, firms are hoping for another $4 billion in loan guarantees, since they have another $40 billion worth of projects that need funding.

A bill on energy efficiency reimbursements already has supporters in the Senate.

“Not only will [such legislation] increase our energy security and transform our energy infrastructure to a modern, clean and efficient one,” Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., wrote in a recent op-ed column in the Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. “But it also will position the United States to lead in the development of clean energy technologies.”

The Power of State Actions

As someone who worked really hard to pass global warming legislation in Maryland to make us a leader, it’s great to see the cumulative effect of all these states taking the lead, as seen in this Yale e360 article.  David Sassoon and Michael Northrop do a great job of connecting the actions to the states to the broader national and international picture.  Here’s a few excerpts..

“Taken together the actions initiated by the states, coupled with the clean energy policies and programs implemented thus far by the Obama administration, rival the scope and ambition of the actions taken to address global warming anywhere in the world,” says a report released last week by Environment America, a coalition of state environmental advocacy organizations.

Since more than half of the U.S.’s 50 states are actively on the path to reducing emissions on their own, state climate action is no small thing on a global scale. California, America’s bellwether environmental state, has the world’s eighth-largest economy, just behind that of Italy. California’s energy use is among the most efficient in the nation; its leadership on improving automobile fuel efficiency forced Detroit to significantly boost gasoline mileage of U.S. vehicles; and its comprehensive climate law – AB32 – is as aggressive as any in the world.”

“Environment America’s report, America on the Move, analyzed state climate action and found that, taken as a whole, it will reduce CO2 emissions by 536 million metric tons per year by 2020. That’s equivalent to about 7 percent of total U.S. emissions in 2007 — almost half the distance to the 2020 reduction of 17 percent below 2005 levels Congress is contemplating.

In other words, the states have already moved the ball nearly halfway downfield while the federal government has largely remained a spectator until this year. Perhaps this will help spur Congress to support the more ambitious goals that the rest of world is demanding from the planet’s leading historical polluter.”

“The rest of the reductions will come from renewable energy standards already adopted by 29 states, energy efficiency mandates adopted in 22 states, state and federal standards for appliances and cleaner cars, updated building energy efficiency codes, as well as other measures that are part of two dozen comprehensive state climate plans adopted since 2003.”

“Meanwhile, state action continues to accelerate. Maryland is working to develop seven gigawatts of offshore wind power. Sparsely-populated Maine is working to develop five gigawatts, with plans to use the surplus wind-generated power to run electric vehicles. A newly energized U.S. Department of Energy is backing a plan to develop 50 gigawatts of offshore wind power in 10 states.”

“Yet the U.S. states, disunited, can only do so much. A national policy that places a price on carbon and also capitalizes on — rather than ignores or preempts — years of state work is still needed. President Obama has an opportunity in Copenhagen to point out to the rest of the world something that has been overlooked: that the states, at least, have not been standing still for the last decade, but have been quietly showing leadership. He can also take the opportunity to goad Congress to do more by building on the strong track record of state climate action. “

UMD for Clean Energy provides Tour of Free Energy Audit

UMD for Clean Energy did something a little different than usual, holding an educational event to close out the semester by doing a walk through of an energy audit of a house in College Park.  Once we have the numbers from the audit on how much money could be saved by certain measures, they’ll be released.  Here is the article in the Diamondback covering the event, and I’m also posting it below.

A green house effect

In an effort to bolster support for their Green for College Park campaign, UMD for Clean Energy held an energy audit to prove their Energy Loan Fund plan would be a success.

About 14 members of the group crowded into a local home Sunday to observe greeNEWit, a company that performs residential and commercial energy audits to demonstrate how energy-efficient upgrades can save homeowners money.

Group members hoped that the live energy audit would encourage support for an Energy Loan Fund, the main part of their Green for College Park platform, which has faced recent legal challenges. The loan fund would be a pool of money lent out to College Park homeowners to make energy-efficient upgrades in their homes, which the College Park City Council would collect back by levying property taxes on the loan recipients. But due to a state law, the council does not have the authority to raise taxes on specific households. Council members plan to lobby the state legislature to change the provision.

GreeNEWit founder Josh Notes and auditor Brad Eisenberg, both university alumni, performed tests and used infrared cameras to do an audit of the home’s energy usage.

“We knew Josh from GreeNEWit, and we’ve been trying to do this since the beginning of the semester, but we’ve had some problems finding a residential house instead of a rental property and that wouldn’t find a group of students to be a liability,” said campaign coordinator Matt Dernoga, a senior government and politics major and Diamondback columnist. “Josh mentioned that he had a friend with a house in College Park that would be a good place to do this at.”

Group members watched as Eisenberg walked around the exterior and interior of the house, pointing out areas that could use improvement and examining appliances, heating and water systems and air leakage, which resident Anastasia Stephnova said was a big problem.

“If [the improvements] are going to make the house warmer and are cheaper, that would be amazing because it’s so cold,” Stephnova said. “I think everyone should get an audit. Some things just make more sense that I never would’ve thought of myself, like not leaving the garage open.”

The auditors found a number of problems: The empty freezer was using up more energy than it was full, the residents had several electronics plugged in while they were turned off and there was not enough insulation in the attic, which was contributing to the cold temperatures indoors.

Notes and Eisenberg also took readings of the temperatures along the top edges of the walls with an infrared camera and then used a reverse fan fitted into the door to depressurize the house and show where the air leakages were.

“We’re essentially exaggerating what’s already happening in the house to find the problem areas,” Eisenberg said.

Energy-efficient solutions, such as sealing the perimeter of the house to better retain heat, may cost between $1,000 and $2,000, but the electric bills for the house are already $600 or $700 a month, Notes said, suggesting the owners of the house could make back the money in as little as a year.

“We are trying to start a loan fund in College Park, and we did this so people can have an incentive to make energy efficient upgrades and so people can see how much money they can save, and so the city can see that it’s a good idea,” said Katherine Beisler, a UMD for Clean Energy member.