energy efficient mortgages

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (HR 6899). While the bill itself is very wide-reaching, unfortunately the majority of it its focus (and debate) has gotten caught up in the issue of off-shore drilling, an issue that has been shown to have little impact (immediate or long term) on our national energy use and needs.[i] While the bill did pass the house, and now moves to the Senate to be voted on, President Bush has threatened to veto the bill.

Regardless of its unfortunate focus on drilling and its apparent doom by the hand of a presidential veto, the bill does include many positive provisions for efficiency in buildings. The bill also includes the GREEN Act of 2008, a bill sponsored by Rep. Perlmuttter (D-CO), a bill that FAS helped develop. Some of the many important measures included in the bill, along with some thoughts:

The biggest news of this week is by far the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which places the two mortgage giants in government conservatorship. Together the two own or guarantee about $5 trillion in home loans, about half the nation’s total, and have lost $14 billion in the last year. They are likely to pile up billions more in losses until the housing market begins to recover.

The primary goal of what is the largest ever financial rescue by the U.S. Government is to restore confidence and stabilize the housing industry. However, congress should embrace a secondary opportunity in this shake-up: attacking the current energy crisis by refocusing Fannie and Freddie to embrace energy efficient mortgages.