Retrofitting Our Way Back to Economic Recovery

By Chris de Morsella on October 19, 2009 2 Comments American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, carbon dioxide, CEQ, Department of Energy, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Labor, DOE, energy efficiency, energy efficiency retrofitting, energy efficient home, energy efficient mortgages, Energy Retrofit Working Group, Energy Star, energy-efficient, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, global warming, greenhouse gas, Hilda Solis, Joe Biden, Karen Mills, Middle Class Task Force, municipal energy financing, Nancy Sutley, Recovery Through Retrofit Report, reduce home energy bill, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Labor, Shaun Donovan, Small Business Administration, Steven Chu, weatherization, White House Council on Environmental Quality

This country’s 130 million homes together generate more than 20% of the nation’s carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions. This is one of the most significant contributing sources in the country to global warming. Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting can reduce home energy use by up to 40 percent per home on average which would also lower our national greenhouse gas emissions by 160 million metric tons annually by the year 2020. In addition doing so would reduce home energy bills by $21 billion a year and over time these savings would more than pay for the high up-front costs for energy efficiency retrofitting.