Cash for Caulkers

[we_are_toast]

John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and former President Bill Clinton have separately suggested versions of the idea to the White House. Mr. Doerr calls his proposal, which would give households money to pay for weatherization projects, “cash for caulkers.” Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, told me, “It’s one of the top things he’s looking at.”
The idea has a lot to recommend it. The housing bust has idled contractors and construction workers, who could be put to work insulating homes and caulking air leaks. Many households, meanwhile, would save substantial money — not to mention help the climate — by weatherizing their homes, research by McKinsey & Company has shown. All in all, a cash-for-caulkers program seems like a promising part of the jobs program for 2010 that Mr. Obama has suggested he is planning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/bu...ardt.html?_r=1

Stimulus II (jobs, jobs, jobs) is taking off. I think this program could expanded to include government buildings and maybe solar.

The catch will be what comes out of the senate. The Senate is going to push for the traditional "infrastructure" jobs, Highways, bridges...

These traditional jobs are counterproductive if you buy into Cheap Peak Oil, while the Alternative approach could delay the impacts of Cheap Peak Oil.

Politically, Stimulus II had to be jobs, jobs, jobs. Will the Republicans go on record opposing a jobs program, with unemployment at 10+%, going into an election year? Just having a plan for jobs will be a huge political advantage.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

It's time to revive John Rubino's Next Bull Market thread from last year at this time.

John Rubino: "More likely government infrastructure programs will focus on making buildings and homes more energy efficient by installing more new heating and cooling systems, insulation, and lighting."

Yours truly: "Maybe it will come in the form of a WPA style program that employs an army of folks to sweep across the country updating buildings for LEED certification?"

EJ: Let's say we are correct and the leading edge of the government sponsored alternative energy boom is conservation, and let's say that insulation of existing structures is a key of that. What you'd look for is a national roll-up of some of the 1,360 insulation contractors in N. America to create economies of scale in volume purchases of material and replicatable installation processes developed to improve profitability. Also likely is that we see in two years' time several private-public partnerships that are fundamentally roll-ups of many small to medium sized privately held residential and commercial construction companies.

'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 14, 2008

GOV. GRANHOLM: Can I just say, I, I think that one other piece that is very important that is an opportunity right now is to give people the means to be retrained. And so we've got a lot of people in Michigan, for example, that have had the rug pulled out from under them, and maybe they could be retrained to do, you know, energy efficiency work by retrofitting homes or businesses with weatherization and, and a--you know, making sure that we reduce our carbon footprint. Maybe they could be retrained for healthcare jobs. We've done something in Michigan--you know, we have no, No Child Left Behind. We call it No Worker Left Behind, where we have taken the community colleges as the means of work force training and use them to be able to retrain people. We've got 35,000 people in the training system right now. But government can really help explode that because, as you create this knowledge economy, our goal is to double the number of college graduates in Michigan. We're in the middle of this paradigm shift where we tell people you can't just expect to go from high school to factory anymore. Well, as the, as the next administration considers the stimulus, work force training is a huge opportunity.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-...gets-vc-funds/

Michael Kanellos | October 28, 2009 at 11:17 PM

PACE. It's gone from an obscure acronym in the green building market to a popular policy initiative championed by several states and Vice President Joe Biden in less than a year.

And now there's a VC-funded PACE startup.

NGEN Partners, Draper, Fisher Jurvetson and NewCycle Capital have invested in$12.2 million Renewable Funding, a startup founded by Cisco DeVries, who co-invented the PACE financing concept while the chief of staff for the mayor of Berkeley. UC Professor Dan Kammen is the other inventor. The company essentially helps a government establish a PACE program and administers them. DeVries acts as president.

PACE – or property assessed clean energy – loans for retrofitting homes and commercial buildings for energy efficiency differ from conventional loans in that the money gets paid back through supplemental property tax assessments.

[..]

Fourteen states including Florida, Texas and Maryland as well as 30 municipalities have already passed PACE programs. Berkeley, Calif. became the first governmental body to issue PACE bonds in January. The House and Senate included provisions inside their versions of Waxman-Markey that would permit the federal government to guarantee the bonds, which would enhance their marketability. Interest on PACE bonds right now aren't tax free.

Joe Biden made PACE loans a central part of his Recovery through Retrofit program unfurled last week.

[vinoveri]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/bu...ardt.html?_r=1

Stimulus II (jobs, jobs, jobs) is taking off. I think this program could expanded to include government buildings and maybe solar.

The catch will be what comes out of the senate. The Senate is going to push for the traditional "infrastructure" jobs, Highways, bridges...

These traditional jobs are counterproductive if you buy into Cheap Peak Oil, while the Alternative approach could delay the impacts of Cheap Peak Oil.

Politically, Stimulus II had to be jobs, jobs, jobs. Will the Republicans go on record opposing a jobs program, with unemployment at 10+%, going into an election year? Just having a plan for jobs will be a huge political advantage.

Thanks for the laugh Toast; your thread title has me chuckling.

I don't agree with such a program however, although it seems to be an easy sell to the central-planner, "government knows best and will save us" mentality.

Why don't we just allocate funds to give every homeowner a 10kw solar system (or let's make it 30kw, why not)?
That would sure go a long way in boosting jobs, increasing our energy independence and diminish our oil dependence (save for the initial spike in making all the solar cells).

Why not? Uh, it might cost too much? Who cares .... we have this thing, it's called a printing press right .... no worries mate, all we have to do is create paper with the USA seal of approval and "credit" on it and we can exchange that for anything and everything we want. It's amazing! What a wonderful world this is. Why did it take so long for us to discover this secret to prosperity?

[we_are_toast]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

Thanks for the laugh Toast; your thread title has me chuckling.

I don't agree with such a program however, although it seems to be an easy sell to the central-planner, "government knows best and will save us" mentality.

Why don't we just allocate funds to give every homeowner a 10kw solar system (or let's make it 30kw, why not)?
That would sure go a long way in boosting jobs, increasing our energy independence and diminish our oil dependence (save for the initial spike in making all the solar cells).

Why not? Uh, it might cost too much? Who cares .... we have this thing, it's called a printing press right .... no worries mate, all we have to do is create paper with the USA seal of approval and "credit" on it and we can exchange that for anything and everything we want. It's amazing! What a wonderful world this is. Why did it take so long for us to discover this secret to prosperity?

I wish I could take credit for the title, but it's straight from the NYT article.

Whether we agree with the direction the administration is taking or not, is probably left for postings on different web sites. The question is, how do we profit from something that is becoming more likely to go forward and that will have some economic impact?

With Peak Cheap Oil and Peak Cheap Nuclear and the Global Warming deal President Obama is striking with China;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews
it looks like Alt-E(conservation 1st) NG and maybe coal will be the big future energy players. My guess is "clean coal" will not be able to compete with the other 2, so now may be the time to start looking for long term plays in Alt-E/NG.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/bu...ardt.html?_r=1

Stimulus II (jobs, jobs, jobs) is taking off. I think this program could expanded to include government buildings and maybe solar.

Toast,

Stimulus 1 is already doing this - although I believe that the programs are generally only for residences housing people/families at ~60% of state median income. The website is here: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/weatherization/

The only difference I see in the talks going forward is expanding the program to more middle income earners, state & municipal buildings &/or commercial and industrial locations - some of these are covered by other measures in the stimulus 1 too. See http://www.eecbg.energy.gov/

[rjwjr]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

What's the government program called in which deliquent homeowners can lease their own home back?...Cash for Bunkers?

What if we provided an incentive for unemployed Americans to fish for their own food so as to reduce the dependence on food stamps...Cash for Lunkers.

Maybe we could incentivize the energetic, go-getter crowd to start businesses and create jobs...Cash for Spunk-ers.

One of the most popular incentives is the one to revitalize the bar & spirits industry...Cash for Drunkards.

Unfortunately, we iTulipers are in the other category, the one in which we have taken personal financial responsibility, been conservative with our investments, and been one step ahead of the bubbles. That puts us in the program that pays for all other programs...Cash from Suckers.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: Cash for Caulkers

Unfortunately, we iTulipers are in the other category, the one in which we have taken personal financial responsibility, been conservative with our investments, and been one step ahead of the bubbles. That puts us in the program that pays for all other programs...Cash from Suckers.

Cash for Hunkers ??


The Oxford English Dictionary has a fine description of how to hunker: “squat, with the haunches, knees, and ankles acutely bent, so as to bring the hams near the heels, and throw the whole weight upon the fore part of the feet”. The advantage of this position is that you’re not only crouched close to the ground, so presenting a small target for whatever the universe chooses to throw at you, but you’re also ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Hunker down has also taken on the sense of to hide, hide out, or take shelter, whatever position you choose to do it in. This was a south-western US dialect form that was popularised by President Johnson in the mid 1960s. Despite its Scots ancestry, hunker is rare in standard British English.