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  • Home Star: Let’s move past the talk and get to the action

    Now that it has passed the House of Representatives with flying colors (246 to 161), we are thisclose to making Home Star a reality. This is the plan, supported on both sides of the aisle, that would give U.S. homeowners rebates for energy-efficiency improvements that cut energy consumption. Most importantly, Home Star will put many […]

  • Home Star energy retrofit bill passes House; is backed by broad coalition; rules

    For years, energy-efficiency advocates have been beating their head against a wall. Efficiency saves money, reduces emissions, creates jobs, and enhances economic competitiveness. It ought to be the first item on the energy policy list — the “first fuel,” as they say — and the subject of broad bipartisan consensus. And yet … it’s not. […]

  • Matt Golden

    Art: Nat Damm Matt Golden President, Founder, and Chief Building Scientist, Recurve Sausalito, Calif. Matt Golden, 35, has become a golden boy of the nascent energy-efficiency industry. He started Recurve—formerly called Sustainable Spaces—back in 2004 before retrofit was hip. While Recurve works on a software-driven solution to scale up the energy-efficiency business from mom-and-pop shops […]

  • Pollution limits are essential for clean energy investments

    This piece was co-written by Kate Gordon, vice president for energy policy at American Progress. A critical element of President Obama’s domestic agenda is transforming the United States to a low-carbon-pollution economy, which would spur recovery, create jobs, and generate long-term prosperity. The president also made clear in his State of the Union address this […]

  • Home Star advances in the House

    The Home Star program, which could jumpstart a national revolution in residential energy efficiency, is one tiny step closer to becoming law. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on Wednesday passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, which could create 168,000 jobs by investing up to $6 billion in residential energy efficiency […]

  • Things you didn’t know about your furnace

    At a dinner this week in San Francisco, I found myself seated between Matt Golden, co-founder of energy efficiency retrofitter Recurve — the startup formerly known as Sustainable Spaces — and Cisco DeVries, co-founder of Renewable Funding, the Oakland outfit that pioneered municipal financing of residential solar arrays. The hot topic was Home Star — […]

  • Home Star gets a hearing

    Home Star: Creates jobs! Slashes energy use! Saves money! All of that was said yesterday and more, during a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Congressional Research Service, the Department of Energy, and a collection of business, utility, and state advocates all testified yesterday along those lines.  Home Star is a […]

  • How the cap-and-trade controversy could lead to good clean energy policy

    On Wednesday, bipartisan groups of legislators from both houses of Congress joined together to support a bill: the Rural Energy Savings Program, which would make low-interest loans available to rural homeowners to fund efficiency retrofits. The loans would come with no upfront cost and would be paid off with a small surcharge on utility bills […]

  • Job Creation Begins at Home

    Originally published on TheRoot.com Today the Senate Energy Committee will begin debating a weatherization bill known as Home Star that aims to make American homes more energy efficient, while creating thousands of American jobs in the process. Home Star has the potential to significantly reduce residential energy consumption, saving consumers almost $10 billion over the […]