Green Me Now

An energy performance label for existing homes, municipal financing, and energy-efficient mortgages are tactics outlined in a report issued last week by Vice President Joe Biden and the Council on Environmental Quality.

The 14-page document, Recovery through Retrofit, commits no additional funds, according to a New York Times article, although the billions in February’s stimulus package for state energy offices does apply. Its focus is the ways in which government can help the owners of the U.S.’s 130 million homes get access to information and financing for efficiency improvements.

Biden requested that the council propose federal-level action that would serve as a platform for generating a sustainable home energy efficiency retrofit industry.

Eligible retrofits affect many elements within a home, including efficient heating and air conditioning, water systems, insulation, windows, roofing, flooring, solar-powered hot water tanks, geothermal heat pumps, solid state lighting, and solar panels, says the Examiner.

The report notes that although new homes can get an “Energy Star” label reflecting relatively low energy use, existing ones cannot. The proposed fix involves a national home energy performance measure. In addition, it advocates municipal financing programs like the Berkeley model that allow homeowners to put the cost of energy improvements onto their property taxes--thus avoiding upfront costs and passing on any unpaid improvement costs when the home is sold. The report recommends making it easier for state and local governments to implement them.

Energy-efficient mortgages, the report contends, will simplify the process of obtaining and financing energy retrofits when a home is being purchased, a likely time for such a decision. Another idea is greater availability at the state level of revolving loan funds, which permit borrowing at lower interest rates than traditional loans.

The report was created as part of the middle-class task force chaired by the vice president, according to the Times article.

The timing of the report couldn’t be better. The Sierra Club reports that Friday, October 30, is National Weatherization Day and has even produced a flyer that can be stuffed into open Halloween bags and given to neighbors.

The day designation was created by the U.S. Department of Energy.  Cities around the nation will be hosting events to highlight services and organizations that help people to make their homes more energy efficient, says the Sierra Club.