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$6B ‘Cash for Caulkers’ aims to energize economy
By GRACE WYLER
Consumers looking to save on their monthly energy bill may soon get a boost from the federal government.
Congress is considering legislation to give customers cash rebates in exchange for making energy-efficient home improvements.
The legislation would create a “Cash for Caulkers” program similar to last summer’s “Cash for Clunkers,” which revived lagging car sales by offering consumers cash incentives to trade in old vehicles for more fuel-efficient models.
The $6 billion program, officially known as Home Star, would give varying amounts of cash rebates to consumers who make simple home retrofits — such as insulation, duct sealing and roofing — that improve energy efficiency.
The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act is pending in the U.S. Senate.
Local demand for energy-efficient home-improvement products and services has already increased significantly, according to several home improvement retailers and businesses in the region.
The Green Building Pros, a home performance contracting company in Salem, has seen business grow since it opened in 2007. The firm performs home energy audits and makes energy-efficient improvements.
Hits to the company’s Web site have tripled since last year, said president Michael Hein.
“I think people are starting to catch on that it just makes sense to do these sorts of improvements,” Hein said. “Not only to save energy, but to save money.”
Already, sales at Lowe’s Home Improvement in Warren have been up by nearly $50,000 every day in April, compared to the same days last year, said Jim Fridley, manager of the store’s building supplies department. Customers are increasingly interested in improvements that will lower their heating bills, Fridley said.
The Home Star program hopes to jump-start the market for home retrofits and create construction jobs. The program will also indirectly create manufacturing jobs, as many home retrofit products are made in the U.S.
Proponents of the legislation estimate Home Star would create 168,000 jobs.
Experienced construction workers can easily be trained to retrofit existing homes, many of which have inefficient insulation and heating systems, Hein said.
“New homes are not being built, and there is so much work to be done on all of these existing homes,” Hein said. “We can’t do them all.”
There is a largely untapped market for home retrofits, said Patrick Pitone, president of USA Insulation, a Cleveland-based home insulation company that has franchises in Columbus, Akron, Dayton and Cincinnati. The company is looking to expand into the Youngstown-Warren area, he said.
“There will be more competition, but because of Home Star, the pie will be bigger,” Pitone said.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, support the Home Star legislation.
“The Home Star program is one more avenue through which Congress can assist states and communities in putting Americans back to work,” Ryan said in a statement.
“These incentives and rebates will increase energy efficiency while creating jobs in construction and related industries.”
The proposal has generated broad and bipartisan support.
It is backed by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and is part of a jobs agenda endorsed by some Senate Democratic leaders.
A large coalition including major corporations, organized labor, and energy nonprofits supports the initiative as well.
In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address he said that rebates for Americans who retrofit their homes should be part of a clean-energy agenda.
“We should put more Americans to work building clean-energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean-energy jobs,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.