Cash For Caulkers: Because Baby it's Cold/Hot Outside
President Obama at Home Depot, Photo: Jewel Samad, Getty Images
Instead, let's take a look at the facts about the $23B incentives program, laid out by the President at a Home Depot in Northern Virginia (where else?) last week. For starters, the official title of the program is Homestar, which reminds us of a quirky cartoon, not a bloated bailout package for a poorly run industry. See, it's getting better already.
IMO, for this program to be truly successful from an environmental perspective, it needs to lead directly to energy savings that wouldn't otherwise have been realized (unlike Cash for Clunkers). That's the tricky part.
Sure, it's a nice gesture to stimulate the home improvement retail industry, and we always get all the spiel about creating "green jobs" -- but will the benefits actually outweigh the costs?
According to NRDC's Switchboard, the most current version of the Homestar program proposes two levels of assistance: Silver and Gold. The "silver" level would apply to the simpler retrofits like sealing ducts, adding insulation and the like. In other words, things you're already likely to do, but just need that extra push. The "gold level would include the more involved, holistic changes -- presumably carried out by an accredited home-energy contractor.
Whereas the silver-level upgrades would obviously make homes a bit more efficient and helps stimulate retailers, the gold-level incentives are this program's real bright (yet still fairly murky) spot. Under the proposed plans for the gold-level home retrofits, energy auditors and contractors would work together to both improve your homes efficiency and then retool it for its new needs.
For example, once your home has been decked out with Low-E windows and sealed up tighter than Fort Knox, you could get further incentives by downsizing your A/C and heating units, provided that they further reduce your home's energy footprint. That's where the green jobs play in, consumers can keep getting rebates as long as their contractors are playing by the rules.
The Homestar program's biggest question mark seems to be: How will the government actually measure the energy savings of each retrofit? To ensure that the taxpayers were getting their money's worth, it seems like there would need to be a home energy auditing body the size of the IRS -- and how many people that you know want to invite the IRS into their homes.
While energy audits are now being made mandatory in certain areas, a totally optional governmental probing could be a deterrent. Of course, congress could just adopt ridiculously loose standards (as they did with Cash4Clunkers) and then scratch their heads when people get rebates for buying 80-inch Energy Star flat panel TVs.
Don't need an act of Congress to get started? Check out the NRDC's tips for winter weatherization.
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