We're already handing out hundreds of billions in loans to inept corporations. And we're not even sure we'll get our money back.
How about this: why not give us loans to weatherize or weather-proof our homes and businesses? It wouldn't cost $600 billion dollars, it wouldn't be risky, and it would mean real jobs now for millions of Americans.
It might sound boring, but it's not. Here's how it could work:
- A renovation/retrofit business estimates (accurately) how much money they could save us.
- We get a loan from the gov't to pay for the retrofit/renovations.*
- Loan payments are worked into our utility bills (where we're now saving money) so there's no increase in our expenses. Unlike the big companies, these loans would be safe.
*(... you'd only get a loan if the savings estimate was big enough :) )
We could really strongly amplify the program's effects if we get immediate cash savings up-front for doing the retrofits, letting us realize the savings now rather than later. Most importantly, we should give a bonus up-front to the retrofit guy proportional to the amount of money of money he or she saves us: this would focus the retrofitters on the places where the most money could be saved.
With this kind of grassroots, self-organizing program we get:
- Money now (stimulus!)
- Money later (savings forever!)
- Millions of retrofit jobs now in our own communities
- Lower energy use!
- Higher property values!
(and lots more besides ...)
It's win-win-win- ... !
I know, many of you will say "Obama has already promised to fully fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which is, of course, awesome. He also pledged to retrofit government buildings so they use less energy. This is good. Great, even. But if want to fix the economy, if we want to deal with problems as massive as global CO2 emissions, we must be bolder Existing programs are far too modest.
The proposal above would tap American entrepreneurial spirit: every home and business would be a miniature gold mine of energy savings, waiting to be realized by enterprising retrofitters.
Now, accountability and quality assurance will be a must: ideally, retrofitting would be taken on through the expansion of established businesses who would pay a fine if the homeowners failed to achieve their promised savings. This would be the primary feedback loop preventing fraud (over-charging would be prevented through competition, since homeowners will still be incentivized to choose the most honest estimate).
But, also, the idea with giving a "bonus" or savings-proportional commission is manifold:
- Businesses will seek out properties most in need of a retrofit, targeting the highest yield ones first while improving technology and skills for tackling more ambitious buildings.
- Rather than relying on property owners to take the initiative, which hasn't worked so far, businesses will be incentivized to advertise and market the energy saving opportunities.
- This program will elegantly accommodate multiple retrofits. Since financing and bonuses are simply based on estimated and realized savings, if three years from now new technology for solar panels comes out, or we develop cheap, fancy windows that generate electricity, then a new loan could be taken out which would be financed, as the previous one was, entirely through energy savings.
In sum, existing proposals have fallen short. What this is proposing is to create a massive market for energy retrofits, so that building owners are enthusiastically marketed-to by the recently laid-off (especially those who once worked in the housing industry), looking to make a difference by saving us all money and energy.
This is a simple solution that can really work!
Cross-posted (mostly) to Change.gov's Citizen's Briefing Book -- rec up there too, if you like this idea!