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Energy Efficiency: Made in the USA

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By Karen Aho

It’s too bad you can’t hold a good news conference in an attic or a crawl space, because that’s where the real energy-efficiency work takes place.

But President Obama has to consider the cameras when he pitches his home-energy programs, so he heads to a windows factory or Home Depot, or maybe a trade school. It’s from one of these well-lit perches that he emphasizes “one of the best things” about energy-efficiency upgrades is that they fuel the American work force.

That’s left some to wonder whether the current proposal before Congress to provide federal rebates, called the “Home Star Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program” or “Cash for Caulkers,” is really an American jobs bill at all, as is sometimes claimed. What about all those appliances in the big-box stores stamped “Assembled in Mexico” or “Made in China”? And aren’t our solar energy dollars already being shipped to Asian manufacturers?

In fact, while that’s often the case with high-tech or labor-intensive goods, it is not the case here. The most effective investments a homeowner can make to lower his utility bills occur in the attics and crawl spaces, with homegrown labor and homegrown goods: insulation and caulking. Nearly every dime stays close to home.

Employing local workers
The work is hardly glamorous (when’s the last time a TV show featured an air-duct remodel or a trendy attic insulation?) nor does it need to use the sexy housewares that big companies promote in ads and on Capitol Hill. Often the results are even hidden from the view of the homeowner himself (aside from the smaller number on the electric bill).

But unlike so many products lining retailers’ shelves today, a typical job can be entirely domestically produced. First, three-quarters of the cost of an air sealing and insulation job—the best way to lower energy usage—goes toward labor.

“You can’t offshore a job installing air sealing or insulation. It’s local labor,” says Paul Zabriskie, general manager of Energy Smart Vermont, an energy renovation contractor. “It has to be trained labor, but we’re not talking about labor that takes four years and advanced degrees. It’s quality training in a matter of weeks.”

Since the housing bust, the nationwide construction sector has suffered a 25% unemployment rate. Workers are already being hired and trained, with a boost in energy upgrades expected to immediately add 168,000 jobs.

“In our region it’s dominated by small operators,” Zabriskie says. “These are people who maybe a year ago were building decks or working on small additions.”

Even most materials made in the USA
As for the remaining 20% to 30% of the job—the materials—they’re also made in the States, and even then often aren’t being shipped far.

A study (.PDF file) by the Home Performance Resource Center, a nonprofit research group, found that more than 90% of the most common materials used in an energy retrofit are manufactured in the United States. The percentage is even higher for materials used in caulk air sealing and blown-in cellulose insulation, with 95% domestically produced.

Percentage of energy remodeling goods manufactured in the USA


Source: February 2010 report, Home Performance Resource Center

“If you walk through our warehouse, you’re going to find very little that isn’t domestic,” says Matt Golden, founder and president of Recurve, a home retrofitting company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Launched just six years ago, Recurve added 35 workers last year and is approaching $10 million in annual revenue. “That’s money that’s going right back into the economy,” Golden says.

How government is trying to help
Golden, who’s also policy chairman of Efficiency First, a national nonprofit striving to promote energy upgrades, has been instrumental in crafting the Home Star legislation, a bipartisan effort endorsed by business and labor groups that’s now wending its way through the Senate.

he $6 billion program would offer homeowners rebates of 50% of the cost to retrofit homes, up to $3,000. Under another option, homeowners could receive rebates of 50% up to $8,000 if the work met certain certified energy-reduction levels.

Eligible work includes insulation and air sealing, the foundation of any job, but also windows, doors, air-conditioning units and some energy-saving appliances, all of which have many domestically produced options. (Find a link here to rebate programs in your state or view current federal tax credits.)

“We’ve got lots of homegrown choices that are excellent products,” Zabriskie says.

Even without a rebate, a basic air seal and insulation (averaging $3,000 to $5,000) can pay for itself in reduced energy bills in as little as five to seven years.

Meanwhile, a “Cash for Caulkers” infusion would jump-start an industry that could keep 600,000 to 700,000 new workers busy for as long as homes needed upgrades—that’s forever, Golden says.

In addition, small, regional producers could crank up their operations, including companies such as National Fiber, a manufacturer of cellulose insulation, a product made from recycled paper products. The Belchertown, Mass., company makes 80% of its $10 million annual revenue from energy-efficiency upgrades.

A jobs analysis from the Center for American Progress found that 82% of the 130,000 workers who now make and install windows are with companies that employ fewer than 20 people; 85% of those who install insulation also work for companies with fewer than 20 workers.

Add water heaters, light bulbs and, increasingly, solar panels and fans to the list of domestically produced products. Master lists of everything that’s made here are hard to come by, but simply asking about the source of an individual product is easy to do.

“These energy-efficiency projects are definitely catching on with Americans and putting Americans back to work,” says Larry Laseter, president of WellHome, a home performance contractor.

Source:
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