Wednesday, April 14, 2010 6:00 PM
Markey Seeks 'Triple Play' With Home Star
By Christopher Snow Hopkins, NationalJournal.com
Answering President Obama's proposal in March for a "cash for caulkers" program, a bipartisan group of congressmen introduced the "Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010" today, touting the bill as a salve for the nation's economic and energy ills.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called the bill a "legislative triple play," with the potential to create 168,000 jobs in the construction sector, save participating homeowners as much as $500 a year in energy costs, and address America's growing energy crisis in an environmentally responsible way.
Joining Markey at a press conference today were Reps. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif.
Cardoza described to reporters a home district "racked by unemployment, where the economy has virtually collapsed." Home Star legislation will stimulate a flagging economy, he said, spurring job creation in a sector that has a jobless rate two-and-a-half times that of the overall economy.
Ehlers marveled that such an "obvious" solution could have a profound and immediate impact. Home Star legislation will incentivize homeowners to seal drafty windows and patch leaky ducts by providing thousands of dollars in rebates.
Many of the bill's provisions are derived from the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance Act, developed by Welch last year and absorbed into the Waxman-Markey bill. By introducing what many anticipate will be a stand-alone bill, the authors are decoupling a potentially popular initiative from the controversial "cap-and-trade" measure. A companion Senate bill sponsored by Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is also in the works, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., signed on as a co-sponsor.
Markey predicted swift movement on the House legislation, which is scheduled for a Thursday markup in the Energy and Commerce Committee. The presence of Republican Rep. Ehlers offers hope for bipartisan cooperation on the $6 billion bill that, as he put it, "pays for itself in every way."
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