Reader Cobra asked about the Jim Himes Memorial Carbon Tax bill’s requirement for energy audits of residential homes so I looked into it and by golly, it’s a doozy. So far, the best I could come up with is a copy of the Henry Waxman draft dated May 19, 2009 but I’m pretty sure this was what was enacted. The bill is here, all 926 pages of it, which doesn’t include the extra 300 pages slapped ontop at the last minute.
Energy audits begin in Section 204 (page 264) but the fun begins with Section 201 (p. 214), which establishes a new National Energy Efficiency Code. As of January 1, 2014 new homes must be 50% more energy efficient than today’s, with a 5% iincrease every three years thereafter until 2029, for a total reduction improvement of 75%. The law is mandatory on states and towns and here’s a chilling provision: it shall be a violation of this Act for any home owner or builder to occupy, permit occupancy or convey a building that does not meet this code. So much for the hippie who wants to build a dome or log cabin in the woods. For that matter, a tepee isn’t going to cut it, either. You fans of big government might want to consider the implications of a government large and powerful enough to reach out to the local building department of Lowell, Vermont and tell it to toss people out of their homes. Or perhaps you might not – it’s ugly.
Section 204 Mandatory energy audits and ratings. Applies to any home that undergoes a renovation or addition but in practice, will reach all existing homes that are offered for sale (banks and/or buyers have started demanding it in those few states who already have such programs). The state, acting through your building department, sends Elmer Fudd to your home to conduct an energy audit and develops an energy use label similar to that found on an automobile or icebox. It’s recorded in the land records. No mention of who wil pay Elmer to conduct this audit but you can bet it will be your property taxes. Now imagine what happens to the value of your house when you fail the energy audit. At the very least, it will give the buyer another means to knock down your price, and count on it, he’ll use it.
Implications. My immediate problem with this legislation is that it extends the reach of the federal government even further into our lives but for those who don’t share my Libertarian concerns, there are practical issues as well. Right now, foam insulation is at least 15% more expensive than fiberglass, “green” windows at least that much more than regular double-pained, and so on. But 15% more to insulate a house is just the beginning because Waxman et als want more than is even available now. If your 1969 house, renovated through the years, isn’t a teardwon now, it sure will be by 2014. Hope you like yur land’s value, because that’s what you’ll be left with.
I just browsed 70 pages or so of this 926 page bill which, as noted, swelled to over 1,200 pages in the wee hours of the night. Every page is filled with mischief, every page has new, expensive obligations for citizens of this country and only the lobbyists know what those obilgations are. I believe Mr. Himes owes his constituents the duty to take the entire bill home with him during the upcoming holiday break and read it, digest it and report back to us. There’s some startling stuff in here – did I mention new lighting standards? That starts at around page 271.
For What It's Worth 
Don’t worry Chris.
Everyone will be afforded the chance to buy offsets from ALGORE. LMAO!
Do yourself a favor and buy em now……when cap and trade passes, the speculators are gonna have a field day.
And anyway, the govt will be giving out vouchers, kinda like they recently did with the analog/digital conversion. Problem is, they gave a $40 offset on a $60 converter box……again, the tax payer got stuck with the bill.
How are they going to make 95 of the houses tear downs at the time of sale? There’s no way to get those kind of energy savings in a retrofit. All of the new houses are going to have to be poured concrete or built underground to meet those standards.
Jimminy Cricket.
No tax bill on those tv vouchers, Towny. The gov’t took in $19B when it auctioned the bandwidth vacated by the tv stations.
yeah but about 2 million households had to shell out at least 19 bucks for each chinese made converter box. I know. I had to buy 4 for my 87 year old aunt, whose single joy in life is watching Alex Trebec on Jeopardy. -No cable yet in areas of the Catskills.
Conv. box Cost (4) $255
2 $40 vouchers – $80
Total out of pocket $175
Towny – How’d your aunt make out reception-wise up in the boonies?
The whole UHF reception issue was virtually ignored leading up to the switch. There’s gotta be a ton of people with lost stations and lousy signal drop-outs.
lousy reception. it wasnt great to begin with, she had about 5 stations -with rabbit ears and now only two. thank god shes got jeopardy and wheel of fortune or it would of been my ass. Most up there have satelite, she tried it years ago, but didnt like it…..she tuned in some softcore and that was it. lmao.
Otherwise, this is still a ridiculous proposition from DC. They take in 19B shell out 2B and virtually fuck over anyone who dosent have cable or satelite. I heard even new tv’s with built in digital processors wont work well with rabbit ears.
To Pulled Up in OG – $19B was paid by businesses for spectrum; those $’s in turn were paid by advertisers, who then passed on the costs to consumers. Whether you call it a tax or a price increase, my costs went up (with the obvious free-rider caveat that they only went up to the extent I purchased advertised products) YMMV