Clinton To Promote Construction Of Energy-Efficient Homes
By John King/CNN
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AllPolitics, May 4) -- President Bill Clinton Monday will promote an administration partnership with the building industry to encourage the construction of energy-efficient homes, something the White House says will make a major contribution to combating global climate change.
The president is visiting a Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) pilot site known as Village Green, where building is about to begin on 186 energy-efficient homes.
Other pilot projects are under way in Tucson, the largest "sustainable" master-planned development in the United States, and in Pittsburgh, where a new neighborhood is being built on a decontaminated "brownfield" former urban industrial site.
The program includes tax incentives to encourage the construction and purchase of energy-efficient homes and Clinton plans to push Congress to dramatically expand the initiative.
The president's fiscal 1999 budget proposes a $6.3 billion package of tax incentives and research money, including $200 million in tax credits for qualified home purchases and $1.4 billion in tax credits for the purchase of energy efficient appliances for buildings and homes.
The goal of the initiative is to cut energy use by 50 percent in new homes, and by 30 percent in 15 million existing new homes. White House officials say if those goals are met, consumers could save $11 billion a year in energy costs by 2010. Also, the goal is to reduce annual carbon emissions in 2010 by nearly 24 million tons, the amount produced by some 20 million cars.
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