Home Star rebate proposal moves forward

This item appeared earlier today on the Globe's Business Ticker. I've added updates in bold from Steve Cowell, of Conservation Services Group in Westborough.

US Representative Edward J. Markey and several congressional colleagues are set to unveil proposed legislation that would create a much-anticipated federal energy efficiency home retrofit program.

Called Home Star, the program is popularly known as "Cash for Caulkers," a play on Cash for Clunkers, last summer's rebate for car buyers.

If approved, Home Star will provide rebates to homeowners who purchase and install efficient windows and insulation, or who make other improvements designed save energy.

A spokesman for Markey, a Malden Democrat, said legislators will introduce the bill - the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 - during a 1 p.m. press conference at the House Triangle in Washington D.C. They will be joined by members of the Home Star Coalition, a group of more than 1,000 business, labor, environmental, and consumer organizations that have thrown their support behind Home Star.

Proponents of the energy-saving program have been working for months to hash out a draft for Home Star. Integral in that process was Steve Cowell, head of Conservation Services Group, a Westborough nonprofit that helps customers become more efficient.

Cowell said he will continue to work with legislators as in both the House and the Senate, as well as with coalition members, to make sure that "issues that get raised get properly vetted."

"This is a step, but as with all things in Congress, a step is wonderful but getting across the finish line is the ultimate object here," Cowell said. "I think we've got bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate."

Members of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee passed a version of the Home Star bill late last month after capping the program's cost at $6 billion.

If implemented, legislators estimate that the rebate program will create roughly 170,000 jobs and save consumers $9.5 billion in the next decade.