That is according to one President Barack Obama. The U.S. leader visited a Home Depot in Alexandria, Virginia this past Tuesday to give a speech promoting job creation, energy efficiency, and tax incentives. In particularly, Mr. Obama addressed ways in which families and individuals could do part to not only help the environment, but help themselves. He said:
“In our nation’s buildings — our homes and our offices consume almost 40 percent of the energy we use and contribute almost 40 percent of the carbon pollution that we produce… Homes built in the first half of the last century can use about 50 percent more energy than homes that are built today. And because most of our homes and offices aren’t energy-efficient, much of that energy just goes to waste, while costing our families and businesses money they can’t afford to throw away.
The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient — installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment — is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.
If you haven’t upgraded your home yet, it’s not just heat or cool air that’s escaping — it’s energy and money that you are wasting.”
This speech was also used to promote the so called Cash for Caulkers
program. This alliterative effort is a proposed plan by the administration to create green jobs and offer tax rebates for people who save energy through the means he described at Home Depot. This proposal comes on the heels of the successful
Cash for Clunkers program that has helped rid the streets of old and
inefficient cars. So called clunkers, old, gas-guzzling autos were traded in for new, more energy efficient cars. This endeavor looks to individuals to do similar green acts. Home
owners will receive monetary incentives if and when they improve energy
efficiency in their homes in the next year.
Regardless of one’s political affiliations, the words of the President are indisputable. The tasks are easy to undertake, and as the President showed, those at Home Depot are happy to help out. There are a lot of reasons to say yes, and not just because saving energy is sexy stuff.
