More from the Apollo Alliance on Clean Energy

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More from the Apollo Alliance on Clean Energy
Last week, the Vice President's Middle Class Task Force and the White House Council on Environmental Quality released a report on how retrofitting residential homes to make them more energy efficient can help spur the recovery of the U.S. economy by creating jobs and saving consumers money.
The report, Recovery Through Retrofit, focuses on the economic and environmental benefits of retrofitting the United States - 130 million homes, which are responsible for more than 20 percent of the nation's carbon emissions. Retrofits will create jobs, save homeowners money on utility bills, and lower global warming emissions to boot.
In a press statement released by the White House, Vice President Biden said, "Recovery Through Retrofit is a blueprint that will create good green jobs - jobs that can't be outsourced, and jobs that will be the cornerstones of a 21st-Century economy - And, thanks to the Recovery Act's unprecedented investments in energy efficiency, we are making it easier for American families to retrofit their homes - helping them save money while reducing carbon emissions and creating a healthier environment for our families."
Recovery Through Retrofit recommends several measures to address barriers that have prevented homeowners from making energy efficiency improvements to their homes:
·   Develop an energy performance label for existing homes so that lenders and perspective buyers will know about the home's energy efficiency.
·   Support financing mechanisms that allow homeowners to pay off the costs of retrofits over a longer period of time on their property tax bills.
·   Expand the use of energy efficient mortgages to facilitate the process of obtaining and financing energy efficiency retrofits at a home's point of sale.
·   Expand state revolving loan funds to all 50 states to leverage private capital and achieve economies of scale that will allow consumers to borrow money for home retrofits from private firms at lower interest rates.
·   Establish a uniform set of national standards to qualify energy efficiency and retrofit workers and industry training providers.
An interagency Energy Retrofit Working Group will be tasked with implementing these recommendations. Read the full report at the Middle Class Task Force website.


In other News...
*Need a clean energy pick-me up? Check out our newest Signature Stories - clean energy success stories from around the country. Our latest stories cover a former Ford Motor Company plant that's being converted to a solar and battery power manufacturing center (Former Ford Plant Renewed as a Renewable Energy Manufacturer), and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments that are going to make sure batteries for new electric vehicles are made domestically (America Invests in Advanced Battery Manufacturing).
*Look out on Monday for a new study to be released by Ceres, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) and the Clean Economy Network showing that comprehensive clean energy and climate policies (such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act) would create jobs, increase consumers' income, and strengthen the U.S. economy. The study will be available on Monday at the E2 website.
You can keep track of the quickening pace of state and federal action on clean energy policy on our Apollo Blog and Daily Digest.
And how about joining us on Twitter?
Take care and talk to you again next week.
Yours,
Andrea Buffa
Senior Writer and Policy Associate
Apollo Alliance
buffa@apolloalliance.org


We need to keep the pressure on for more renewable energy resources to come on line here in Ohio and the USA!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/