Cap and Trade legislation proposed by President Obama and currently being hashed out by Congress isn’t just for power plants and large industrial companies. There are provisions in the new bill that will affect the new home building industry as well as current homes.
Reuters news agency quotes part of this new bill, “Upon enactment of the bill, new commercial and residential buildings would be required to achieve 30 percent improvements in energy efficiency relative to baseline. By January 1, 2014, new residential buildings would have to improve energy efficiency by 50 percent; commercial buildings would be required to achieve 50 percent improvements relative to baseline by January 1, 2015.”
The bill also states that carbon credits could be used to fund building retrofit projects throughout the states. If this bill passes the Senate later this year this could lead to LEED standards on a widespread scale as mandatory green building practices. This will most likely also create green collar jobs in energy efficiency for buildings.
The impact of this bill if approved will impact every home, apartment, or commercial real estate building new or old. Just how individual homeowners will be affected at this time is unknown, but the greening of your neighborhood and my neighborhood is about to happen, and in a very short time-frame.