Creating Jobs, Improving Homes, Saving Money
March 2, 2010
11:03 AM
Home Star
Creating Jobs While Making Our Homes More Energy Efficient
President Obama today promoted a new program to combine home energy efficiency and job growth, called Home Star. Chairman Bingaman, working with colleagues including Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), today released the draft text of a legislative proposal to implement the Home Star program, and announced a hearing before the committee next week to review and take testimony on the developing proposal.
As laid out in the draft legislation, Home Star would be a fast-acting program that will drive new private investment into the hard-hit construction and manufacturing sectors while saving consumers money on their energy bills. It provides strong short-term incentives for energy efficiency improvements in residential buildings to help spark more construction hiring and benefit home-improvement retailers, while also helping homeowners lower their utility costs.
“Home Star is a comprehensive and compelling proposal to address one of the most important opportunities we have to boost private sector employment and demand for durable goods while cutting both consumer energy costs and greenhouse gases,” Bingaman said. “As Congress considers additional ways to shore up our economic recovery and to accelerate new hiring, I hope this proposal’s broad impact and support help it become law.”
The Senate Energy Committee will meet next Thursday, March 11, to consider a majority staff draft of the Home Star proposal, plus other bills designed to create jobs related to energy efficiency. The hearing will be in Dirksen 366 starting at 10:00 a.m.
The discussion draft is found on the Energy Committee’s website. So is a summary of Home Star.
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