Home Star Energy Retrofit Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chair, as an original cosponsor of this important legislation, I rise in strong support of the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010.

As we work to develop and deploy new forms of clean, homegrown energy, we must never lose sight of this central fact: There is no cleaner, cheaper source of energy than the energy you never have to use.

Energy efficiency is literally America's greatest energy resource. Over the past thirty years, energy efficiency and conservation improvements have significantly outpaced our production and import of petroleum and any other single source of energy.

Going forward, we can do even better, and this initiative is part of that future--creating 168,000 jobs across the United States, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 4.14 metric tons, which is the equivalent of taking 767,000 cars off the road, and saving Americans $9.2 billion on their energy bills over the next decade.

Finally, in addition to the Silver and Gold level rebates provided to homeowners under this bill, this initiative also includes the establishment of a Home Star Energy Efficiency Loan Program so that states and localities can provide low-cost financing to homeowners wishing to undertake retrofits. While on a smaller scale, this provision is consistent with the Green Bank proposal included the House-passed energy bill and can go a long way towards overcoming the lack of upfront capital that is currently a barrier to many homeowners getting started on making these commonsense improvements in the first place.

Madam Chair, this combination of jobs, energy savings and consumer relief is a perfect trifecta for the American people. I thank my colleague Representative Peter Welch for his leadership on this issue, commend the committee for bringing this bill to the floor and urge my colleagues' support.

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