Categories: Environment
Date: Dec 18, 2009
Title: Job Creation, Weatherization, and Preservation – How Does It All Fit Together?
(National Trust for Historic Preservation - Dec. 11, 2009)
The buzz in Washington this week continues to focus on President Barack Obama’s recent announcement of his job creation proposals. Here at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we are most interested in the development of a new program to stimulate job growth through a significant increase in home weatherization activity.
According to a December 4, 2009 report by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, what is taking shape is a HOME STAR program. The concept is based, in part, on the Retrofit for Energy and Environment Performance (REEP) incentives, which are currently included in the House and Senate energy/climate change bills. In brief, HOMESTAR creates a new, two-track approach to achieving energy efficiency. Its SILVER STAR program would create a list of eligible measures and products that could be purchased to qualify homeowners for matching payments from the government. The GOLD STAR program, more similar to REEP, would be performance-based and require an energy audit and the use of certified contractors to do retrofit work.
The details of this program are now being discussed and we assume that the House and Senate will take up jobs bills in early 2010. In the meantime, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has pulled together a set of policy recommendations for decision makers as they finalize details of the HOMESTAR program.
As always, please stay tuned to PreservationNation.org for future updates, as well as opportunities to weigh in with your decision makers.
GLOBAL Encasement, Inc.'s high performance, long lasting green coatings such as PrepLESS Primer, LeadLock, Your Last Coat and RoofCoat can help with you achieve your weatherization goals. Call us at 1-800-266-3982 to learn more.