H.R. 5019: Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010

The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, commonly referred to as the “Cash for Caulkers” bill, provides public information services and financial incentives for energy-efficient retrofitting. This bill aims to establish a program to provide rebates to contractors to be passed through as discounts to homeowners who retrofit their homes to achieve energy savings. It will also establish a federal rebate processing system that would allow rebate aggregators to submit claims for reimbursement. The program would reimburse participating contractors and vendors for discounts provided to homeowners for retrofit work that installs specified energy-saving measures. Among other things, the bill would also establish a Home Star Energy Efficiency Loan Program to make funds available to states to support financial assistance provided by qualified financing entities for qualifying energy saving measures under the Silver Star or Gold Star programs.

Professor Cohen’s workshop team analyzed the solution represented by the bill, looking at the science behind the solution and identifying the problems that the bill addresses in order to evaluate its relative success. At the midterm briefing, the team provided a breakdown of energy use in the United States, noting that the primary use is residential heating–the electrical power for this derives from coal. The group analyzed the environmental impacts of this energy consumption, specifically ecosystem disturbance, air pollution and climate change.

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