re:Build

President Obama recently threw support behind the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), and urged Congress to pass his “Homestar” proposal, also being called “cash for caulkers”—a retrofit-and-rebate program—during a March 3, 2010, speech at Savannah Technical College in Savannah, Ga. The program, taking its name from the popular of Energy Star program, would offer up to $3,000 in federal rebates for energy-saving home renovations.

While the plan has support from Democrats and builds on the public want for such a program, Republicans pointed out that WAP has struggled to gain in popularity. The White House said Homestar and WAP will create tens of thousands of jobs and result in long-term savings for homeowners, make homes more eco-friendly by saving energy and allowing homeowners to reduce energy bills by $200 to $500 annually.

Homestar is similar to the tax rebates offered for some Energy Star appliances and the popular “Cash for Clunkers” program rebate program of 2009. The package would cost about $6 billion and should allow 3 million homeowners to weatherize their homes.

The White House made details of the program available on its website (click here), parts of which Obama detailed while speaking to students at the college. Homestar would help make weatherization and energy-saving retrofits rebate-ready and make it easier for people to afford upfront costs of retrofits.

According to the White House, the Senate’s Democratic leadership proposed incentives similar to the proposed Homestar program in their jobs agenda.

Under Homestar, rebates would be made available at point-of-sale, for energy-saving investments. The rebates would be marketed by a numerous vendors, including “small independent building material dealers, large national home improvement chains, energy-efficiency installation professionals and utility energy efficiency programs (including rural utilities).”

Rebates would be offered at two levels, the Silver Star and Gold Star levels. Silver Star rebates (between $1,000 and $1,500) would be available for simple home upgrades including: insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, HVAC units, windows, roofing and doors. However, homeowners could qualify for numerous upgrades reaching a maximum $3,000 per home.

Gold Star rebates ($3,000) would be given to homeowners who do a whole home energy audit and subsequent retrofits that achieve 20% energy savings in their homes. And they could receive more for reaching higher energy savings.

Under the program, contractors would have to certified to perform efficiency installations.

However, Congressional Republicans derided the plan. According to The Washington Post, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor observed that 2009’s stimulus package contained nearly $5 billion in incentives for home weatherization improvements, but that less than 10% of the money was spent.

Partly because of bureaucratic snafus WAP has struggled to deliver, both in terms of jobs creations and the number of homes retrofitted. But administrative officials contended that the Department of Energy is ramping up the WAP and that its target demographics would be different than those of the Homestar program.