This week, Vice President Biden released his “Recovery through Retrofit” report, a blueprint on how to expand home energy efficiency and green job opportunities. The report, which was developed by his Middle Class Task Force, outlined a nationwide weatherization program that would train vast numbers of workers to participate in a national home retrofit market.
I think this report answers the question of where the Weatherization Assistance Program is headed. More importantly, I think it answers the question of where the Obama Administration wants to take the weatherization program. Many see weatherization as a potential cornerstone in increasing jobs, reducing energy independence and improving the environment. We’re hearing from trusted sources that weatherization and retrofitting homes for energy efficiency is becoming one of the highest priorities of the Administration because it offers the most immediate possibilities of job creation.
Our challenge is to figure out how we can make weatherization administered by Community Action and other current providers part of this larger question. If we think we have people clamoring to be weatherizers now, just wait until it becomes an even higher priority for the Administration. I think we will be prepared, and we have to be.
Fortunately, I believe that the NCAF-ExxonMobil training grant program is extremely relevant to the current political and policy interest involving the Weatherization Assistance Program. I believe it will help us as we look ahead at some of the questions and solutions surrounding the future of weatherization.
The NCAF-ExxonMobil project’s advisory council met over the weekend to review applications. We have narrowed our list down to eight proposals for potential funding. We will contact the finalists to discuss some particulars and then plan to announce these at our upcoming conference in St. Petersburg on Nov. 3.
Stay tuned.
October 21, 2009
VP's 'Recovery through Retrofit' Report Provides Glimpse of Weatherization's Future
Labels: Weatherization
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1 comments:
I've reviewed the report pretty thoroughly and can best characterize it as reinventing the wheel. There is nothing new here.
1) We already have a national standard for rating houses. Home energy rating systems (HERS), overseen by RESNET (www.natresnet.org) has created a national consensus standard for auditing and rating the energy efficiency of a residential structure.
2) Extensive experimentation has already been undertaken regarding various financing products to overcome the barrier of high upfront costs. Energy efficient mortgages never developed a significant market; they've been around since the early '90s. The same is true for revolving loan funds and the other financing options listed in the report.
WAP has proven what does work: undertake comprenensive weatherization at minimal or no cost to the consumer. It is far cheaper than buying electricity or natural gas. We need to transform utilities into service providers rather than commodity suppliers. Efficiency is the least cost option to provide the service, so we should focus our efforts on buying those kWhs and therms.
Dave Rinebolt
Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy
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