Booyah! Energy tax incentives on the Senate floor

I have been talking about this Legislation since President Obama spoke at a Home Depot last December about creating stronger incentives for Energy Efficient Retrofits.  His position,  it’s an opportunity to reduce the need for energy,  create jobs for the hard hit construction industry, and would reduce homeowners annual utility expenses.  It’s been through the House and now is working it’s way through the Senate.

What makes it so exciting is that it would provide  rebates up to 50% of the cost to do the inspections and retrofits up to 8k, by far the most comprehensive offering yet to come.   There are tiers of efficiency a home must meet in order to qualify but this also allows homeowners to create a budget that is doable and still see some significant results.   There are incentives for builders to build green and incentives for individuals to go trough the training to become a home energy rater.   It also has provisions for utilities, solar energy, vehicles, commercial and manufacturing.  Here is a full summary.

This could most defintiely have some fairly far reaching impact on our industry in what I feel would be a completely positive way.  Whereas as the first ime home buyer tax credit was just money back in someone’s pocket, this could reduce demand for power plants, fuel, and greatly reduce carbon pollution while also reducing monthly costs to own and live in a home.  I.e. with historically low rates, homes still being priced pretty low, and some great incentives to seal it up and make it more efficient, homeownership could get a whole lot sweeter in the coming months.