Green Options

In the United States today, 21% of all carbon emissions come from our homes.  Even more startling is that, on average, 40% of all energy consumed in our homes is wasted, but is still paid for every month.  Simply bled off into the atmosphere, we lose our heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.  Inefficient buildings not only harm our atmosphere because of all the energy required to run them, but also take a hefty chunk of change [...]

Oh! The weather outside [can be] frightful, which is why Stephen Chu of the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that 7 states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire) will be the recipients of more than $288 million dollars, which will be put toward weatherization projects.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed into law by President Obama in February provides financial opportunities for homeowners, specifically tax credits, rebates, and loans for improving energy efficiency. The Act also provides tax credits for buying a house and for hybrid and alternative fuel car purchases. The problem is that the 400 page legislation can be tough to work your way through to find what’s available to you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Friday, May 1, at SolveClimate.

It is time for President Obama to mobilize us all to help build the new energy economy.

He has begun shaping the public policies we need. Now he needs to launch an Apollo project, interstate highway project, war effort and Marshall Plan all rolled into one.

For starters, he should call on us all to pick up our caulking guns and enlist in the war against energy waste – a national clean energy surge.

The potential for savings through efficiency improvements and conservation is enormous.

As Obama noted during the campaign, the United States is only the 22nd most energy-efficient major economy in the world right now. With very few exceptions, every vehicle, home, power plant, factory, community and state is hemorrhaging energy, energy dollars and greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider just a few examples:

Here are ten tips on how to save energy this winter, as provided by The Energy Trust of Oregon.