Efficiency First

Longtime efficiency advocate Steve Cowell lends considerable expertise to the proposed HOME STAR program

Efficiency First member Steve Cowell was the subject of a profile published last week in the Boston Globe highlighting his central role in the development of the proposed HOME STAR energy retrofit program. The online version of the article also includes a short video (see below) in which Steve gives a guided tour of efficiency measures in his own home – a converted 19th-century Shaker barn in Tyringham, Massachusetts.

Steve is co-founder and CEO of Conservation Services Group, a nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to promote energy efficiency and clean energy programs. CSG is a Capitol Circle member of Efficiency First.

Read the full article here:
www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/01/01/steve_cowell_of_tyringham_helps_craft_federal_home_energy_efficiency_program

ADDENDUM: On Jan. 2, the Globe published an editorial voicing strong support for HOME STAR and calling for swift action on Capitol Hill to get the proposed program up and running:

The administration proposal leans heavily on a similar program in the climate-change bill that is stalled in the Senate after passage by the House last summer. Homeowners could get rebates as high as 50 percent for retrofitting projects that cut energy use. Home Star would also offer incentives to contractors, building-supply retailers, and builders to get them to spur demand among homeowners. Under one plan, the program would draw on some of the $23 billion in bank-bailout money that has already been returned.

The payoff in energy conservation and reduced greenhouse gas emissions would be substantial. According to a memorandum by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, retrofitting can reduce most households’ energy consumption by 10 percent to 40 percent. In the energy-efficiency world, this is the lowest-hanging fruit of all, and American workers would do the picking – the jobs can’t be outsourced. “Cash for caulkers’’ deserves the highest priority from Congress.

Read the rest of the editorial here:
www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/01/02/cash_for_caulkers___a_boon_for_energy_and_the_economy/