House Approves Bill to Boost Retrofits

Under a bill recently approved by The House, federal loan guarantees will apply to energy efficiency projects funded through Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bonds.

The PACE bonds provision is part of the Jobs for Main Street Act, which has a budget of $75 billion. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y) advocated the bill. The bill enables property owners to finance energy efficiency retrofits through a loan, which is voluntarily attached to the borrower's property tax bill.
Such long-term loans are eligible for transfer along with the sale of the property in order to accelerate investment in retrofits. To date, 15 states have enacted bills allowing this kind of municipal financing. Several additional states are considering similar bills.

The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE), an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., stands behind the House's action and said it would work closely with Israel and other congressional members to promote the program.

Details

CEO's Message Regarding Shared Vision on Attachments Industry

In January 2010, the NFRC Executive Committee met in Chicago to review the Business Plan for the Fenestration Attachments Program and to help refine a “Shared Vision” for the attachments industry. This vision will be reviewed by the Board of Directors later this month and an approved vision will be presented to the attendees at the Spring Membership meeting in New Orleans. The draft vision includes the following:

• The rating should be developed sequentially (simplest to most complex).
• The program should provide web-based information on product ratings/performance.
• The label should have a permanent mark; and be traceable (back to APD via CPD #).
• The rating should provide for fair, uniform comparisons within attachment product lines.
• This simple, comparative rating being developed shall not be used for comparison with window ratings.
• The attachment label shall include language that states “For comparable ratings with similar attachment products only.” The label should describe the attachment through words and/or pictures.
• The attachments ratings shall use the same base case windows for all attachment products.
• There shall be 6 base case windows used for determining the ratings.
• The program shall include ratings with and without the base windows.
• One base case window shall be used for validation testing.
• The consumer friendly label shall include ratings (with and without) 2 base case windows (good performer/ poor performer).
• The attachments ratings shall be based upon (and include) U-factor, SHGC and VT (if applicable).

This information will be available on a publicly accessible database on the NFRC website. Information on the simple, consumer-friendly attachment label, however, may be different based upon the focus group and marketing studies.