Biden Announces New Efficiency Programs

Joe unveiled a series of measures today designed to help homeowners improve the efficiency of their residence:

A national rating system for the efficiency of EXISTING homes.  Energy Star will already rate bew homes, but a comprehensive, national system for existing homes has been sorely needed.  This will give an incentive to upgrade your home, even if you don't plan on staying long because it will raise the resale value.  If I'm a home buyer, I'm going to say to my realtor: "I want a house in a good neighborhood, with good schools, for X dollars, and with a Y efficiency rating."  I love this.

Supporting municipal financing programs that allow homeowners to put the cost of energy improvements onto their property taxes – thus avoiding upfront costs, and passing on the cost of the improvements when the home is sold.

Increasing the use of energy-efficient mortgages

Expand state revolving loan funds – currently in 15 states – throughout the country. These funds, according to the report, “allow consumers to borrow money for home energy retrofits from private firms at lower interest rates.”

Establish uniform national standards for training and certifying workers in the energy-efficiency business.

Read more at the New York Times

or NRDC

Google's PowerMeter Partners With The Energy Detective For First Gadget

For anyone who has thought it would be nice to be able to see, on an intuitive display, real time household energy use, this is great news.  Read the Treehugger article here.