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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (10465)	7/2/2009 4:08:33 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 86356

Yes, up to 50% of the mandatory retrofit. You know who will bear the other 50%. becomes law, we'll see a boom in the business of energy audits. You betcha. And they'll all be union members too. People like me would prefer to do the energy audit to determine what retrofits are necessary NOW, so that I can enjoy the benefits of energy efficiency for as long as possible before I sell it. LOL Are you kidding? You balked at putting solar pv on cause you won't keep the house long enough. But you're gonna retrofit (which might mean replacing all your doors and windows, reinsulating, installing attic barriers, who knows what)? Not likely. On balance, this is a huge positive for the economy. Pluses: * creates new jobs for energy audit professionals and contractors who do the retrofits * accelerates the move to energy efficient homes, which will save massive amounts of energy, lowering the cost structure of our economy over the long run * delivers a benefit that exceeds the cost of retrofitting through energy cost savings over time * delivers a 50% subsidy to the home or building owner * energy efficiency will increase the value of the home to offset the costs Since you like what economists call the "broken window" fallacy - since modern windows are more energy efficient, wouldn't it be simpler to hire looters to run through all the neighborhoods in the country that are more than 10 years old breaking out all the windows? Then simply require that all trashed windows be replaced with modern energy efficient windows. There's less training required to hurl bricks through windows than performing energy audits. Of course the window breakers would be unionized. Just think of all the jobs replacing windows that would be created. Negatives: * forces people to do retrofits, even if they don't want to, which could put people into the position of borrowing against their equity to do the retrofits, even with the subsidy For many, the issue would be "What equity"?