Incentives for home owners to upgrade their homes
President Obama’s plan to give home owners incentives to make their home more energy efficient is a good step in the right direction. Here’s what the President had to say from a Home Depot store gathering. “A lot of times there’s an argument about economic growth versus environmental initiatives,” “but energy efficiency is a perfect example of how this could be a win-win. It takes hundreds of dollars off their electric bills each year and produces hundreds of jobs in the process,” said the president. We should definitely benefit from the short term employment boost along with the long term energy savings that this program will bring. Here are a few more highlights from his Home Depot speech.
“If you saw $20 bills escaping out of your windows and up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how to keep them,” said Obama,” but that’s exactly what’s happening because of the lack of efficiency in our buildings. So what we want to do is stimulate consumer spending, because folks buy energy-efficient items from stores like this one.”
“What’s sexy about it” asked the president. “Saving money.”
“The problem is [getting consumers to make] that capital investment, and that’s where the government comes in, by providing an incentive to people to make that purchase,” he said.
“The simple act of retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work,” he said. “As a result of a variety of investments made under recovery act we are at pace to upgrade homes of half a million Americans.”
I will post more information on the actual incentives that home owners will receive as soon as possible.