Efficiency First rallies US small businesses to support Home Star jobs bill
in DC
By Byron DeLear
Every now and again, an idea or concept or product comes along, spreads out
all over the place and sets a new standard. Take, for example, ATM machines
or UPC Barcode or even the internet; looking back, it’s hard to imagine
those innovations not being ubiquitous and ever-present. We just accept them
today as being an integral part of the modern landscape, like wallpaper or
furniture, cars.
“Energy efficiency” is quickly becoming the latest standard centering around
new retrofit construction techniques reducing the energy consumption of
homes, offices and buildings.
Energy efficiency generates multiple benefits:
* Massive job creation and domestic economic stimulus
* Homeowners save money on energy bills
* Increase American energy independence
* First step in diversifying the US energy sector; renewable energy and
smart grid rollout
* Good for the environment
Last week, Efficiency First organized over a 100 small business contractors
from across the nation to travel to Washington DC to champion the Home Star
Energy Retrofit Act in the US Senate, which had previously passed the US
House with bi-partisan support. Home Star is a jobs bill, but it doesn’t
stop there. It also supports the development of smart energy strategies and
jump starts the energy efficiency industry. Home Star has sometimes been
called “Cash for Caulkers” loosely named after the well-known “Cash for
Clunkers” program. But whereas Cash for Clunkers often went to purchase
foreign cars, just about Home Star’s whole kit-and-caboodle stays in the US.
Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT.), who had authored the US House version of
Home Star, addressed the contractors, saying,
“We want to build up manufacturing in this country and 90% of the materials
that are used in this work are manufactured in this country — so even
without the whole debate about ‘buy American’ — it will be bought in
America. This work will be done in America.”
Representing Missouri as chair of the Missouri Association of Accredited
Energy Professionals (MAAEP), I advocated with other efficiency business
owners to the offices of eight US Senators, including personal exchanges
with Missouri’s Sen. Claire McCaskill and Sen. Sam Brownback of neighboring
state Kansas. I applauded Senator Brownback on recent Kansas City successes
with the number of energy efficiency retrofits leading the Midwest,
including Kansas City Missouri’s Green Impact Zone.
Sen. Brownback indicated his support for Home Star, and said,
“Let’s try to find a way to get this done.”
Many potential solutions to get Home Star passed were talked about in the
offices of Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK.), Tom Harkin (D-IA.), Ben Nelson
(D-Neb.), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX.), Kit Bond (R-MO.) and Jeff Sessions
(R-AL.) , to name a few our group visited (there were 8 Efficiency First
groups).
Matt Golden, President of Recurve, Inc. and policy chair of Efficiency First
had a lot to say about the struggling construction trades; how Home Star
acts as a ’shot in the arm’ building up a new industry that puts
underemployed workers back on the job.
“For hundreds of thousands of American construction and manufacturing
workers who have been sidelined by the recession, the proposed Home Star
program – which now awaits Senate approval – represents a lifeline to good
jobs with living wages in a growing 21st-century industry. While much of our
economy appears to be on the road to recovery, the outlook for American
construction workers is truly grim. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, nearly 2 million construction jobs dried up between December
2007 and January 2010, leaving around one in five experienced construction
workers unemployed. And with demand for new buildings stalled at
historically low levels, there’s little hope that these workers will be
rehired in traditional construction jobs any time soon.”
This is where Home Star comes in.
Slated to begin creating 168,000 jobs the moment President Obama signs into
law, Home Star is not just throwing money at a wall to see what sticks, it
builds a market-driven rebate model that rewards home owners who reach
higher levels of efficiency performance, which is good for our nation as a
whole. Home Star also leverages private investment giving more bang for the
buck. Home Star is a $6 billion program, so a state like Missouri is
pro-rated to receive a potential $120 million dollars.
As I’ve said in the past, I believe in less than ten years, an energy audit
and retrofit for an existing home or office will become as commonplace as
the safety and emissions test for your car. It will be a new standard and
this is a new industry taking hold the nation. Efficiency is about jobs, and
domestically manufactured products like weather-strip, insulation and
caulking. Estimates fly around about the size of this national revolution of
retrofits, from 1 trillion dollars of economic activity to a recent figure I
heard from the Department of Energy roadshow in Kansas City, a gargantuan 6
trillion dollars coast-to-coast! (presumably including commercial Real
Estate)
In an era of incessant dismantling of entire legacy industries stateside,
all Americans should lower their shoulders to help launch the energy
efficiency industry into the mainstream–and all Americans can participate
in its rollout. These jobs are quality American jobs that are insulated from
outsourcing and as job creation is the prevailing social issue of the day,
our collective support of this emerging new standard becomes the moral,
patriotic and smart thing to do.
