The Real Story: Home Energy Provisions in the Climate Bill
Posted: in Climate Change Legislation
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The Web and the Twitterverse are awash with nonsense about the clean energy bill that passed the House in late June.
The bill’s opponents are trying to scare homeowners by making them believe an energy audit or retrofit is required before they could sell their homes. That’s nuts — the bill does nothing of the kind. Here’s what it actually does:
- For existing homes, the bill creates incentives to encourage people to do retrofits of their homes. It doesn’t require anything.
- For new homes, the bill establishes federal guidelines for energy-efficiency labeling. It’s up to local governments whether they want to have new homes in their area labeled or not.
See more details in our fact sheet on home energy in the climate bill.
One Comment
Thanks for the post. Here is what needs to happen, regardless of the Clean Energy bill’s passage or not:
1. Any new technology needs to increase energy efficiency. We need to learn how to equip buildings with means to lower energy usage, as 70% of our energy goes to operating them. We also have to push for conserving as much heat/energy loss as possible when producing energy.
2. We need to use this additional energy efficiency to the fullest, and that means not overproducing/overconsuming energy. We already use a ton of energy per capita, and even if countries like those in the Middle East do not cut down on their own energy consumption, we need to convince other countries that we are willing to cut our own wasteful consumption down.
A bill to enforce laws regarding cleaner energy is one thing, but cutting back on wasteful consumption should be the proper way.