President Obama Proposes Home Energy Retrofit Program for Job Creation

Two of President Obama’s most pressing problems are unemployment in the U.S. and improving the country’s energy efficiency (and, oh yeah, health care, but you’ll have to visit a different blog for that).

Luckily for Obama, these top two concerns dovetail nicely. Recently he proposed both a new rebate program that would reward homeowners for making their homes more energy efficient and also additional federal investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

As part of a speech about jobs and the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC., the president noted that home energy retrofits create jobs, save money for families, and reduce the pollution that threatens our environment. President Obama also called for aid to small businesses and new investments in infrastructure.

Obama has asked Congress to consider a new program to provide rebates for consumers who make energy efficiency retrofits. Such a program will harness the power of the private sector to help drive consumers to make cost-saving investments in their homes. Smart, targeted investments in energy efficiency can help create jobs while improving energy security and saving consumers money.

President Obama's job plan also calls for an expansion of select American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiatives that promote energy efficiency and clean energy jobs. The president noted that one-third of the Recovery Act is intended for investments "to put Americans to work doing the work that America needs done," such as doubling the U.S. capacity for producing power from renewable energy. These initiatives leverage private investment in energy efficiency and create clean energy manufacturing jobs. But most of them are oversubscribed, causing many strong ideas to go unfunded. The White House supports programs that invest in industrial energy efficiency, as well as ones that provide tax incentives for investments in American renewable energy technology manufacturing facilities.

The speech came after a December 3rd Jobs and Economic Growth Forum at the White House. The forum allowed the President and his economic team to hear from some of the leading CEOs, small business owners, labor leaders, nonprofit heads and thinkers about ideas for continuing to grow the economy and put Americans back to work. As a follow up, the White House also asked citizens and community leaders to host Community Job Forums across the country over the next 10 days.

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