When Barack Obama won the presidential race, he also opened the door to green initiatives that could have a significant impact on issues such as building efficiency, renewable energy initiatives, and green jobs.

BUILDING EFFICIENCY

• Weatherize 1 million homes annually. "Obama will make a national commitment to weatherize at least one million low-income homes each year for the next decade, which can reduce energy usage across the economy and help moderate energy prices for all."
• Set building efficiency goals. "Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030. He'll also establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help us meet the 2030 goal."
• Establish a grant program for early adopters. "Obama will create a competitive grant program to award those states and localities that take the first steps in implementing new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency, and provide a federal match for those states with leading-edge public benefits funds that support energy efficiency retrofits of existing buildings."
• Expand federal efficiency grants. "Obama will also expand federal grant programs to help states and localities build more efficient public buildings, including libraries, schools, and police stations that adopt aggressive green building provisions like those provided by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Buildings Council."

UTILITIES AND ELECTRIC GRID

• Flip incentives to energy utilities. "An Obama administration will 'flip' incentives to utility companies by requiring states to conduct proceedings to implement incentive changes and offering them targeted technical assistance. These measures will benefit utilities for improving energy efficiency, rather than just from supporting higher energy consumption. This 'regulatory equity' starts with the decoupling of profits from increased energy usage, which will incentivize utilities to partner with consumers and the federal and state governments to reduce monthly energy bills for families and businesses."

APPLIANCE/PRODUCT EFFICIENCY

• Overhaul federal efficiency standards. "The current Department of Energy has missed 34 deadlines for setting updated appliance efficiency standards, which has cost American consumers millions of dollars in unrealized energy savings. Obama will overhaul this process for appliances and provide more resources to his Department of Energy so it implements regular updates for efficiency standards. He will also work with Congress to ensure that it continues to play a key role in improving our national efficiency codes."
• Phase out incandescents. "Obama supports the effort led by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to update federal lighting efficiency standards to ensure that new lighting technologies are phased into the marketplace. As president, Obama will implement legislation that phases out traditional incandescent light bulbs by 2014."

RENEWABLE ENERGY

• Increase share of government electricity from renewable sources. "As president, Obama will ensure that at least 30 percent of the federal government's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020."
• Require 25% of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. "Obama will establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind, and geothermal by 2025."

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

• Build neighborhoods around alternative transportation. "Obama believes that we must devote substantial resources to repairing our roads and bridges. He also believes that we must devote significantly more attention to investments that will make it easier for us to walk, bicycle, and access other transportation alternatives. Obama is committed to reforming the federal transportation funding and leveling employer incentives for driving and public transit."

CARBON EMISSIONS

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.  "Obama's cap-and-trade policy will require all pollution credits to be auctioned, and proceeds will go to investments in a clean energy future, habitat protections, and rebates and other transition relief for families."

GREEN JOBS

• Invest in clean energy. "The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will help create 5 million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future."

Copyright 2008 Ronald Sauve All Rights Reserved

This page was last modified on April 27, 2010

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