Forcing Your Home Into Energy Efficiency

An interesting provision in the Waxman-Markey bill -- otherwise known as Cap'n Tax -- is that the EPA will write environmental standards for residences. You know, the place where you live.

At least at first it won't affect you. Not until you decided you want to sell your home. Then you will be required (forced) to retrofit your home to meet the EPA standards, or you will not be able to sell.

Seriously.

This is just one of those petty little details that our congressmen didn't have time to read because Nancy Pelosi wanted to deliver a 4th of July legislative gift to The Messiah.

How many other little tidbits of command-and-control affecting your very life are included in this abomination of a bill?

My understanding is that the feds are promising to reimburse you for your trouble. We'll see. Where the money is coming from to handle that is another sticky issue. It seems the government is going to sell a new kind of bond to raise money for a revolving fund. It has the rather ominous name of PACE -- Property Assessment Clean Energy.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of people making their homes energy efficient, but not because the federal government forces you to. People should have the right to indulge in energy conservation because it saves them money on their utility bills. They should also have the right not to. The free market system would easily handle the problem because one person's energy efficient 3 bedroom, 2 bath home would be worth more than another's energy-wasting 3 bedroom, 2 bath lemon.

People are smart enough to figure these things out without coercion.

You can read more about some of the provisions of the energy efficiency retrofits HERE in this Reuters story.