Senate hearing a next step for HOME STAR and Building STAR
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Thursday on energy efficiency initiatives for a Senate Jobs Bill. The committee heard testimony on two building energy retrofit proposals, HOME STAR and Building STAR, and a proposal for incentives to replace older manufactured housing with newer, energy-efficient units.
"Yesterday's hearing was a major step in bringing energy efficiency initiatives into a future Jobs Bill," said Alliance President Kateri Callahan. “We are pleased that Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Murkowski are proceeding in a bipartisan fashion, as they did with last year's ACELA legislation, and are hopeful that both HOME STAR and Building STAR will receive bipartisan support in the committee’s recommendations on the Jobs Bill."
Both HOME STAR and Building STAR proposals give incentives for energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings. By reducing the up-front costs for energy-efficient investments and supporting financing and implementation, the programs address major market barriers to energy efficiency and will reduce energy consumption and consumer energy costs in both commercial and residential sectors.
The proposals are also crucial to the recovery of America’s hard-hit construction industry, where one in four workers – over 1.9 million people - is unemployed. Together, Home Star and Building Star would create over 300,000 construction jobs, according to the Political Economy Research Institute, the ClimateWorks Foundation, and others.
BuildingSTAR legislation was introduced last Thursday by Senators Merkley (D-Ore.) and Pryor (D-Ark.) as S. 3079, the "Building STAR Energy Efficiency Rebate Act of 2010." It is a package of rebates and financing incentives for building owners to upgrade their property's energy efficiency, leveraging additional private-sector investment. It is estimated that the prospective $6 billion in funding for the Building Star program would leverage $18 to $24 billion in total program spending, creating up to 200,000 jobs. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the program would yield $3.3 billion dollars annually in energy savings between now and 2011, and reduce greenhouse emissions equivalent to taking four million cars off the road or decommissioning for thirty-three 300 megawatt power plants.
The HOME STAR proposal, sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) and by the Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), would increase the number of homes receiving energy efficient retrofits from 200,000 per year to 3 million per year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 800,000 cars off the road or decommissioning seven 300-megawatt power plants. President Obama has endorsed the proposal and has spoken frequently of the importance of this initiative to his economic recovery program.
"When Americans invest in energy efficiency in their homes, they hire contractors who buy from retailers, who buy from manufacturers. HOME STAR opens up a wealth of opportunities with wide-ranging ripple effects,” said Callahan, "We urge the Senate to act rapidly on a Jobs Bill that will contain both the HOME STAR and Building STAR initiatives that are so important to putting Americans back to work and helping Americans to save money on energy costs."
