Bipartisan SAVE Act Could Create 83,000 Green Jobs

A bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate last week.  This in and of itself is a milestone given the political climate in Washington these days, but even more astonishing is the bill supports energy efficiency and could therefore be called “green”.

The SAVE Act is proposed legislation to improve the accuracy of mortgage underwriting used by Federal mortgage agencies by ensuring that energy costs are included in the underwriting process. The bill, S. 1737 [112th Congress], was introduced on October 19th, 2011 by Senators Bennet (D-Co.) and Isakson (R-Ga.) and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affiars. Comparable legislation has not yet been introduced in the House of Representatives. The proposal is supported by a diverse coalition of organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Appraisal Institute, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Benefits

The SAVE Act would help revitalize the hardest hit sectors of the economy by providing lower rate mortgage financing for cost effective energy improvements; allowing homebuilders and homeowners to recover the cost of efficiency investments; and enabling better federal mortgage underwriting while lowering utility bills for American households.  Benefits include:

• Enable federal mortgage programs to improve the quality of mortgage underwriting and provide an accurate picture of repayment risk and the expected costs of homeownership
• Greatly accelerate the supply of and demand for energy-efficient new homes
• Quickly return any incremental cost for homebuyers due to home efficiency improvements
• Encourage the purchase of energy-efficient homes that reduce utility bills for American homeowners and reduce the vast amount of energy consumed in homes
• Consistently and accurately account for energy efficiency in appraisals, enabling builders and homeowners to invest in energy-saving features
• Put people in the construction and manufacturing sectors back to work renovating and building energy-efficient homes and products

A recent joint analysis from the American Council for an Energy Efficient-Economy (ACEEE) and the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) estimates that the SAVE Act would create 83,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in consumer energy bill savings in 2020, helping revitalize the hardest hit sectors of the economy. The SAVE Act would provide lower rate mortgage financing for cost effective energy improvements; allow homebuilders and homeowners to recover the cost of efficiency investments; and enable better federal mortgage underwriting while lowering utility bills for American households. Download the Analysis. 

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Posted by SBurke on Oct 24 2011. Filed under Green Jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry