U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced legislation today to support local programs that help homeowners and business owners save energy and cut their energy bills by offering low-interest loans for energy-efficient building upgrades.
The Clean Energy for Homes and Buildings Act will make loan guarantees, financing, and credit support available for these energy-efficiency programs.
“We have very serious energy security challenges in the world. Investing in energy efficiency saves money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This program would help federal, state and local governments take a leadership role. It has maximum flexibility to also assist residential, commercial and industrial properties owners to make energy efficiency upgrades,” Lugar said.
“We know that energy-efficient retrofits dramatically cut energy bills over the long term, but the initial installation costs are often too high for families or business owners to deal with,” Merkley said. “This bill bolsters creative programs that offer low-cost loans for these retrofits, allowing people to start saving money as soon as the upgrades are completed.”
While energy-efficiency upgrades save money over the long term, and often relatively quickly, the upfront costs of renovation can be a major hurdle for many businesses and homeowners. Under programs being developed by several cities, states, utilities, and other entities, building owners would receive a low-interest loan to pay for retrofits that they can pay back from savings on their utility bills.
These loan repayment programs result in a net savings for building owners on day one, as the combined loan payment and energy bill is usually lower than the pre-retrofit energy bill.
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