The Homestar Program Encourages Energy Efficient Plans
President Obama arrived in Savannah, Georgia this week. When he did arrive, he discussed the Homestar program. The Homestar program is named after Energy Star, which is the labeling system used by the government for energy efficient items. The program is intended to help homeowners with their own energy efficient plans in the form of government rebates.
USA Today reports that these government rebates for home energy efficient plans are estimated to be rebates ranging from $1,000 to $1,500 dollars, or 50% of the cost for upgrades that are simple, for up to $3,000 per home. Such simple upgrades would include: installation of new windows, insulation, etc. We discussed President Obama's earlier plan for such a program when is it was dubbed as "Cash for Caulkers" by the press in this blog.
This week, President Obama made a stop at Savannah Tech in order to talk about Homestar a little bit more in depth. He explained that the program would identify the sorts of building supplies and systems that would save Americans money through energy efficiency.
According to a transcript of President Obama's speech by the Chicago Sun-Times blog, he said: "We'd identify the kinds of building supplies and systems that would save folks energy over time. And here's one of the best things about energy efficiency -- it turns out that energy-efficient windows or insulation, those things are products that are almost exclusively manufactured right here in the United States of America. It's very hard to ship windows from China."
President Obama made it very clear that this proposed program is an incentive for Americans in order to promote job growth and save money. However, it remains to be seen what the fate of this program will be. Congressional Republicans were critical of the plan. The Washington Post reports that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Rep-VA) mentioned that a previous program similar to Homestar failed to deliver before.
This previous program was aimed a different demographic than Homestar promises to deliver to. This proposed Homestar program would cost approximately $6 billion dollars and would encourage as many as 3 million American homeowners to start energy retrofits.
For more information on home efficiency and possible government programs on energy efficiency initiatives, please visit our Related Resources links.
Related Resources:
- "Cash for Caulkers"? Obama's Home Retrofit Program (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life Blog)
- Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (U.S. Dept. of Energy)
- Being Green and the Law (FindLaw)