ACES Allocation Chart
Protecting You at the Pump
Keeping Your Electricity Bills Light
Sometimes, You Can Create Jobs Out of Clean Air
Home and Building Codes
Top Ten Things You May Not Know about ACES
What's Being Said about Clean Energy Reform
Articles of Interest
More Information
ACES Allocation Chart
Protecting You at the Pump
Keeping Your Electricity Bills Light
Sometimes, You Can Create Jobs Out Of Clean Air
Home and Building Codes
With the historic passage of clean energy jobs legislation, some critics are inventing false claims about the ACES. Recently some talk radio and TV commentators have said ACES would hurt homeowners.
Not true. ACES’ building provisions help consumers make energy smart decisions on new homes and will not impact existing homes sales. Just like when you buy a new refrigerator you can look for an Energy Star sticker, now NEW home shoppers will be able to factor in energy costs before purchase. Again, this labeling will not affect the sale of current homes.
Commonly Asked Questions:
Will I need an energy audit to sell my home?
NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Just ask the National Association of Realtors: “The House approved bill does not create a federal energy audit requirement for real property… Leaves the decision to states as to whether to require energy audits, disclosures, etc.”
Will it require an energy label when I sell my home?
NO. Again, the National Association of Realtors has found “The House‐approved bill:
1) Exempts existing homes and buildings from any federal guidelines for new construction energy efficiency information labels.
2) Prohibits the implementation of any labeling during a sales transaction”
Does ACES create a Home Energy Police? People who can come into my home to check my light bulbs?
NO, OF COURSE NOT.
Does ACES mandate smaller floor plans?
NO.
I heard efficient measures and green homes are expensive and only for the wealthy?
NOT TRUE. Low cost weatherization measures –such as fixing windows and doors ‐ can save all families hundreds of dollars annually. Meanwhile, new inexpensive, energy efficient homes are being built for low income families in places like hurricane ravaged New Orleans. And the measure includes incentives to spur
energy upgrades.
As the Realtors point out the bill “provides property owners with significant financial incentives, matching grants and tools to make property improvements and reduce
their energy bills.”
How Congress Is Helping Home Owners Save Money:
Congress is stepping up to help families SAVE money at home, work and school –where buildings consume 70 percent of electricity, 60 percent of all raw materials and 12 percent of all potable water in the Unites States each year alone. New efficiency measures in the Waxman‐Markey American Clean Energy & Security Act
include:
- Improving Appliance Efficiency: ACES improves energy efficiency standards for appliances, lighting and furnaces.
- Better Buildings: Commercial buildings receive federal support for retrofits, while efficiency measures and codes for NEW buildings would mean a 30 percent improvement by 2010 and 50 percent improvement by 2016 saving business owners large and small on energy costs.
- Supporting State & Local Leadership: States, cities and towns are improving building codes to help save communities money and protecting local tax dollars. ACES offers financial support for these efforts to provide the best local solutions. The bill allocates $90 billion to states, much of which will be used on money saving efficiency programs like weatherization and building retrofits.
Building Jobs That Can’t Be Shipped Overseas:
Buildings contribute over 45 percent of the pollution that causes global warming. Taking action to increase efficiency and build green will not only help consumers and businesses large and small save money ‐it protects the environment and creates new jobs. That’s why the Building Trades Council have endorsed ACES ‐ because
building a clean energy economy will create millions of new jobs for construction workers, tradesmen, plumbers and electricians.
Tips and Tools to Help Families SAVE Money at Home:
The federal government (Department of Energy) offers free tips and tools to help homeowners cut energy waste and start saving money immediately. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/home_energy.html
Top Ten Things You May Not Know about ACES
Last
month, the House passed historic clean energy jobs legislation that
would finally begin the transition away from dangerous foreign oil and
address the global challenge of climate change. The bill includes a
number of provisions to help achieve these goals:
- Clean Cars: Invests $20 billion in advanced fuel efficient cars and trucks like plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles.
- Innovation Hubs: Establishes eight Clean Energy Innovation Hubs across the country, linking our top academic institutions (including land grant, technical colleges and historically African American institutions) with clean energy businesses.
- Clean Energy Bank: Establishes a "Clean Energy Bank" to provide $75 billion in loans to fund clean energy technologies.
- Job Training: Provides $865 million in job training assistance for America's new clean energy workers.
- Smart Grid: Encourages a Smart Grid that uses E-Chips (electricity processors) in appliances and homes to allow consumers to use the Internet to manage electricity usage.
- Green Buildings: Updates energy efficiency standards for NEW buildings, so by 2016 new buildings will use 50 percent less energy saving families and businesses money.
- Price Spike Protection: Dedicates 30 percent of the program to protect families and businesses from rate spikes on their electricity bills. Dedicates 15 percent of the program to protect low-income families from price increases, providing hundreds of dollars in energy rebates annually to low-income families.
- Fiscally Responsible: ACES will NOT increase the federal budget deficit, as the program is completely budget-neutral.
- Protects Forests and Wildlife: Provides $65 billion in funds to protect forests, which help cut carbon emissions by an additional 10 percent, and provides $8 billion to protect wildlife endangered by global warming.
- Breaking our Addiction to Foreign Oil: When
combined with fuel economy standards, ACES will save 5 million barrels
of oil a day. That is more than America currently imports from the
Middle East and Venezuela.
What's Being Said about Clean Energy Reform
Let's be clear. This legislation is good for America's economy, health and competitive future,as well as our country's ability to lead globally on climate change. BICEP (Includes, Levis Strauss 7 Co., Nike, Starbucks, eBay, Gap, Inc, etc.), May 22, 2009
Events such as the terrible tornadoes and flooding that have ravaged America's Midwest, and the recent cyclone that devastated Myanmar, remind us of the threats we face from global climate change. The natural beauty that surrounds us and the extreme weather patterns that spawn death and destruction urge us to take action to prevent further devastation from global climate change. Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL), July 15, 2008
The
very best way to do it is to support the technologies that are
alternatives that can save the environment and to get us to the point
where those technologies can actually take over...we need to expand use of hybrid vehicles, clean coal, carbon sequestration...we
have more coal reserves in the United States than they have oil
reserves in Saudi Arabia. I prefer incentives for these new
industries...we should expand biofuels, wind, solar, liquid
gas...this should be a major national project... this is a matter of
national security. Rudy Giuliani, Jan. 25, 2008
The concept of reducing the amount of carbon emissions over the next 50 years is a totally sound concept.
And the United States reaching out and saying to the world, we want to
help take the lead in the kind of innovation necessary and the kind of
new technology necessary, and by the way, we'll share all these
breakthroughs so that China and India and others can develop with
minimum environmental damage. Suddenly you just formed a consensus
over what was going to be a conflict. Newt Gringrich, Mar. 28, 2007
We must aggressively pursue cleaner energies which are sustainable and produce no greenhouse gas emissions. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Apr. 6, 2009
Climate change, in my view, is real...I am confident [that with] American technology and the embrace of green technologies...we can reduce these greenhouse gas emissions. And suppose that we are wrong, and there's no such thing as climate change, and we hand our kids a cleaner world. But suppose we are right and do nothing. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Jan. 24, 2008
It's cap and trade...there will be incentives for people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, its a free market approach, the Europeans are doing it, we did it in the case of addressing acid rain. Look, if we do that, we will stimulate green technologies...this will be a profit making business. It won't cost the American taxpayer. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Feb. 17, 2009
We can no longer deny that our climate, and our planet as a whole, is facing a dire situation, and the way to solve this increasing threat is to invest in clean energy technologies. I truly believe this bill, more than any other in the 111th Congress, is symbolic of who we are as a nation. The semantics need to stop; we have a moral imperative to pass this legislation, if for no other reason than for our children’s future. We need to stop turning a blind eye now. Rep. Michael E. McMahon (D-NY), June 26, 2009
H.R. 2454 contains the tools to provide certainty to the marketplace and to promote investment in technology. The bill recognizes the important greenhouse gas reducing contributions of the advanced clean coal technologies and energy efficient technologies that we innovate. George Nolen, President and CEO of Siemens Corp., May 21, 2009
If we successfully implement a cap-and-trade system that will reduce long-term risk and provide market certainty, the economy undoubtedly will respond with ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and job expansion, while simultaneously addressing climate change, one of the greatest challenges of this century. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), May 7, 2009
Articles of Interest
China Builds High Wall to Guard Energy Industry, NY Times, July 13, 2009
U.S. Natural-Gas Supplies Surge, Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2009
Climate change report shows damage happening now, Associated Press, June 16, 2009
The race for clean-energy innovation, Boston Globe, June 6, 2009
Leadership Long Delayed, New York Times, May 22, 2009
The Perfect, the Good, the Planet, New York Times, May 17, 2009
More Information
Congressman McMahon Votes for More Jobs and Reducing American Dependence on Foreign Oil; Includes Critical Derivatives Amendment in Bill, June 26, 2009
EPA analysis of ACES
Interactive Map: A State-by-State Look at Clean Energy and Job Creation
For additional information on the bill, please visit the official website of ACES: Building the Clean Energy Economy.
