Efficiency First

The New York Times reports that energy panels in the House and Senate will hold hearings this week focusing on efficiency standards and incentives, including the proposed HOME STAR program introduced last week in the Senate. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s Greenwire report:

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is a champion for energy efficiency and has pushed stakeholders and focused his staff on improving standards across the board this session. He is also leading efforts to get energy efficiency tax incentives for home and commercial building included in the Democrats’ jobs agenda.

So far, Democrats have included a one-year credit extension of $1,000 to $2,000 for new energy efficient homes in the tax extenders bill the Senate is set to take up this week. Bingaman would like to put more efficiency incentives in future jobs bills and is hoping the two hearings may convince more of his colleagues, including ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Thursday, Bingaman’s panel will consider the “Home Star” program (also known as “Cash for Caulkers”) to provide rebates for upgrades to homes; “Building Star,” a similar program for commercial retrofits; and manufactured housing rebates. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will take up the issue on Friday.

Read the rest of the article here:
www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/03/08/08greenwire-democrats-to-turn-spotlight-on-energy-efficien-54735.html

An insider’s guide to becoming a Home Performance contractor

Home Energy magazine has published an excellent guide for contractors and others who want to get into the Home Performance retrofit business.

The article was written by Greg Thomas, president of two Home Performance companies based in Ithaca, New York – Performance Systems Contracting, which provides installation service and Home Performance contracting throughout central New York, and Performance Systems Development, a national consulting firm.

Thomas gives a solid overview of the industry and the kinds of businesses that can succeed, with advice about training, business models and assembling a team. The article also includes a “Toolbox Primer” describing the basic performance-testing equipment used by auditors and contractors.

“So You Want to Be a Home Performance Contractor” can be downloaded from the Contractor and Career Resources page
of Efficiencyfirst.org.

Here’s a direct link: www.efficiencyfirst.org/static/files/how_to_become_a_home_performance_contractor.pdf

Downturn in construction employment presents historic opportunity to build a new clean energy economy

An interactive map and memo jointly produced by the Center for American Progress and Efficiency First’s research arm, the Home Performance Resource Center, clearly illustrates the dire state of the American construction sector – a situation the memo describes as a “tool belt recession.” The memo also outlines the capacity of the Home Performance retrofit industry to quickly generate new employment opportunities for American workers in construction and manufacturing.

Citing the January construction unemployment rate of 24.7 percent and an overall loss of 2.1 million construction jobs since 2006, the memo explains how underutilized capacity in construction and building materials manufacturing can be put to work improving the energy efficiency of American homes:

Looking across the current economic landscape, there are few areas where construction industry jobs seem poised to grow. There is one significant exception, however, in the area of energy efficient retrofits of our nation’s building stock. A program that incentivizes energy improvements would rapidly create jobs within the construction industry directly, and in retail, manufacturing, and local economic activity as well.

The memo goes on to describe how the proposed HOME STAR efficiency retrofit program could achieve this goal:

Smart public policy can help overcome current barriers to private investment in more energy efficient buildings and jumpstart jobs and growth in the construction trades and supporting industries. Currently, Congress is considering HOME STAR, a program of consumer incentives that provides a rebate to homeowners who invest directly in improving energy efficiency. HOME STAR would give homeowners a direct rebate when they buy a new efficient hot water heater, furnace, or air conditioning system, and it could cut the cost nearly in half of replacing leaky windows, sealing duct work, and insulating attics for millions of American homes. Building consumer demand for energy retrofits through HOME STAR will not only give consumers a rebate of as much as $3,000 to $8,000 and
long-term savings on their energy bills, but it will create new demand for construction jobs, putting contractors back to work.

HOME STAR would be fast acting and use the existing marketplace to deliver retrofits to consumers with a minimum of new government overhead. It also builds a well-trained workforce and expands consumer demand for high-quality retrofits that provide guaranteed energy savings of 20 percent or more off existing energy bills. This is a policy that works rapidly to create urgently needed jobs today, even as it builds the robust industry that we will need for the future.

“Current unemployment levels in the building and construction trades have reached crisis proportions,” the memo concludes. “It is time for a national program to roll back these job losses and put hardworking Americans in the construction industry back on the job, rebuilding America for a clean-energy future that saves consumers money, improves health and comfort, and creates lasting value in our communities.”

View the interactive map showing state-by-state declines in construction employement:

www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/construction_jobs.html

Read “Taking on the Tool Belt Recession” here:

www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/tool_belt_recession.html

Larry Laseter, president of Efficiency First Capitol Circle member Masco Home Services, joined Barack Obama in Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday as the President delivered a speech outlining details of the proposed HOME STAR efficiency retrofit program. Here is a video released by the White House that shows a brief behind-the-scenes conversation between Larry Laseter and President Obama:

“We’re in the business of doing this now, and just like the GOLD STAR program, we actually guarantee their first year of energy savings” Laseter told the President. “That’s the beauty of this, is we know these technologies are proven, and with this bill, it will jump-start thousands of jobs.”

Read Masco Home Services’ press release about the event:
www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/masco-home-services-joins-president-obama-in-supporting-homestar-proposal-85979787.html

In a statement issued following President Obama’s March 2 address at Savannah Technical College, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger added his voice to the growing tide of support for the proposed HOME STAR efficiency retrofit program.

“I am excited about the HOME STAR program that the President detailed today,” Schwarzenegger said in his statement. “Offering incentives to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient will help create jobs and save homeowners money while also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is a promising idea, and Democrats and Republicans should work together to enact it into law.”

Senate committee hearings scheduled next week for the Home Star Act of 2010

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has unveiled language for proposed legislation authorizing the HOME STAR energy retrofit program, which would allocate $6 billion in federal funds to provide short-term consumer incentives for residential energy improvements. The legislation was designed to stimulate job creation in the construction and manufacturing sectors by giving millions of American homeowners access to substantial rebates for cost-effective efficiency upgrades.

As expected, the language calls for a combination of:

• Prescriptive rebates for eligible efficiency upgrades (the SILVER STAR path)
• Performance-based rebates for whole-home retrofits designed to achieve energy savings of 20 percent or more (the GOLD STAR path)
• Quality assurance and fraud-prevention provisions
• Funding for state and local energy retrofit financing programs to help homeowners pay their share of the upfront costs

The SILVER STAR path would provide rebates up to $3,000 or 50 percent of project costs (whichever is less), with potentially higher rebate amounts available for GOLD STAR projects.

Now that the so-called “discussion draft” has been released, the Senate can move forward with hearings about the proposed legislation – a process that is due to begin next week.

Supporters of the bill are encouraged to contact their Congressional representatives in the House and Senate to press for passage of the legislation. Efficiency First provides a quick and easy way to voice your support at www.efficiencyfirst.org/home-star.

Download the discussion draft and short summary of the bill here:

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=IssueItems.View&IssueItem_ID=7e002a95-53f2-4591-8433-7d5c616a97da

Politico has posted excerpts from the speech about HOME STAR that President Obama delivered earlier today in Georgia:

Here’s another compilation posted by the Associated Press:

In a speech delivered today at Savannah Technical College in Savannah, Ga., President Barack Obama made a strong case for consumer incentives targeting home energy efficiency improvements, and encouraged Congress to pass legislation authorizing the HOME STAR incentive program.

The President provided details about the proposed HOME STAR efficiency retrofit incentives, which would award homeowners up to $1,500 for specific efficiency upgrades, and up to $3,000 for whole-home retrofit projects designed to reduce energy waste by 20 percent or more.

Before delivering his remarks, the President toured Savannah Tech classrooms where students are learning what he described as “skills that will help our country transform the way we use energy in the future,” including HVAC and insulation trades and solar power installation.

Citing the fact that the majority of building materials used in efficiency retrofit work are “almost exclusively manufactured right here in the United States of America,” Obama also emphasized that HOME STAR will benefit American manufacturers and retailers as well as the hands-on construction workers who perform the work.

Update: A transcript of the President’s remarks has been posted online at whitehouse.gov. A few highlights:

I’m convinced that the country that leads in clean energy is also going to be the country that leads in the global economy.  And I want America to be that nation.  I don’t want us to be second place or third place or fourth place when it comes to the new energy technologies; I want us to be in first.

Regarding the job creation potential of HOME STAR:

So the fact is that there’s nearly 25 percent unemployment in the construction industry so far, so construction companies, hardware stores, contractors, manufacturers — they faced a rapid decline in demand in the wake of the mortgage crisis.  And to make matters worse, these businesses have seen the same decline in credit that has hurt every sector of our economy.

So these are companies ready to take on new customers; they’re workers eager to do new installations and renovations; factories ready to produce new building supplies.  All we’ve got to do is create the incentives to make it happen.  And this is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea; this is a common-sense approach that will help jumpstart job creation while making our economy stronger.

And in closing:

I am confident that we can do it.  Savannah Tech is leading the way; a whole bunch of folks in this room are leading the way; and I just hope that Washington stands alongside you in making sure that we’ve got the kind of energy future that we need.

Read the full transcript here:
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-energy-efficiency-savannah-georgia

Bracken Hendricks and Tom Kenworthy of the Center for American Progress have published an excellent overview of the HOME STAR program that is currently taking shape in Congress, including analysis of the economic and environmental arguments in favor of stimulating consumer demand for energy retrofits:

HOME STAR, sometimes called “cash for caulkers,” is a proposal that makes sense. It makes economic sense because it can provide a quick employment stimulus putting 168,000 people to work—the overwhelming majority of them in jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas. It makes sense for homeowners who will be able to afford home improvements that will pay real dollar dividends for many years by reducing their energy bills 20 percent or more forever. It makes sense for businesses who will see demand for their products increase. And it makes sense for a more secure energy future since increasing the number of homes with energy efficient retrofits from 200,000 a year to 3 million a year will cut global warming pollution by the equivalent of taking 615,000 cars off the road or decommissioning four 300-megawatt power plants.

As important as these energy benefits are, however, HOME STAR is clearly a job creator and the right medicine for the economy.

The article also explores the ways in which HOME STAR leverages excess capacity in the construction and manufacturing sectors to reduce carbon emissions and put Americans back to work:

One of the most exciting things about a recovery plan built on home energy retrofits is what it does for American jobs. HOME STAR supports domestic job creation by investing in skilled construction, which results in good American jobs that can’t be outsourced. But it can have tremendous benefits for other hard-hit sectors of the U.S. economy, too, especially manufacturing industries.

The majority of manufactured goods used in HOME STAR retrofits are already made in the United States, averaging well over 90 percent domestic production in most major goods, with all categories included in the Senate HOME STAR bill reporting above the national average for domestic production. A focus on home energy retrofits will therefore by its very nature disproportionately support American industries and target its benefits to help American workers.

Read the rest of the article here:

www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/02/home_star_back_to_work.html

Advertising executive Suzanne Shelton (CEO of the Shelton Group in Knoxville, Tenn.) has posted an interesting reaction to the recent Wall Street Journal article about the failure of Boulder residents to embrace energy retrofit measures on a large scale (see our reaction here). In a post on her agency’s blog, Shelton analyzes the consumer messaging Boulder used to promote their efficiency retrofit campaign, and shares her theory about why the city’s marketing efforts fell short:

1. It appears the city of Boulder assumed all residents were their target, that they’re all green-leaning and pleas of saving the planet would be a great motivator. The WSJ was good enough to run several interactive graphs with their story. A couple of things jumped out at me: yes, Boulder citizens are generally green-leaning, better educated, higher income folks. According to our segmentation, therefore, the majority of the population is True Believers. Interestingly, though, 32% of Boulderites voted for Bush and 28% voted for McCain. That means there’s a niche population of Cautious Conservatives there as well. Those guys respond to a control/ROI message. And, according to the WSJ’s information, adding insulation to a Boulder home is a $2,200 investment that gets paid back in 2.5 years. That’s a compelling offer to the Cautious Conservative set. So is a $1,500 investment in caulking and air sealing that gets paid back in 3.2 years. These specific measures could be direct marketed exclusively to the Cautious Conservative crowd with an underlying emotional promise of “feel smart/in control” and do quite well.

2. It appears the city made assumptions about the True Believer’s level of understanding about what causes global warming. We’ve tracked this for three years and seen zero change: 97% of the population does not know that the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions is electricity production. Thus, when you say, “reduce your home energy use and save the planet!” almost all of us have no idea what you actually mean. The City of Boulder’sClimateSmart web site makes this same assumption as well. Given that the majority of residents are True Believers a heartfelt story around what’s causing climate change would go a long way. The story then needs to be made personal — by tying back to the limits emissions may one day put on our grandkids and could put on Boulder residents today in the form of poor air quality. In other words, the direct link needs to be made — in an uplifting rather than depressing fashion — that every time you plug in your plasma TV you may be making the air you breathe worse for you today and definitely for your kids tomorrow. I didn’t see any “better health” messaging in Boulder’s communications, and that’s a powerful driver for the True Believer set.

“In short,” Shelton concludes, “the City of Boulder just needs to do a better job of segmenting its citizens and custom marketing the right emotional promise to the right segment.”

Read the full post here: www.sheltongroupinc.com/blog/?p=1035