Cap and Trade: Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP)

The Cap and Trade bill is brimming with crap, like the "retrofit" policy.

From CNSNews:

The 1,400-page cap-and-trade legislation pushed through by House Democrats contains a new federal policy that residential, commercial, and government buildings be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency, leaving it up to the states to figure out exactly how to do that.

This means that homeowners, for example, could be required to retrofit their homes to meet federal “green” guidelines in order to sell their homes, if the cap-and-trade bill becomes law.

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a national policy for residential and commercial buildings. The purpose of such a strategy – known as the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) – would be to “facilitate” the retrofitting of existing buildings nationwide.

“The Administrator shall develop and implement, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, standards for a national energy and environmental building retrofit policy for single-family and multi-family residences,” the bill reads.

It continues: “The purpose of the REEP program is to facilitate the retrofitting of existing buildings across the United States.”

The bill leaves the definition of a retrofit and the details of the REEP program up to the EPA. However, states are responsible for ensuring that the government’s plans are carried out, whatever the final details may entail.

“States shall maintain responsibility for meeting the standards and requirements of the REEP program,” the bill says.

So the goal is to create a Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program, a set of standards for a national energy and environmental building retrofit policy.

Existing buildings, RESIDENTIAL and commercial, would need to be retrofitted to meet the new national building code. Exactly what the standards will be aren't determined yet. That will be left up to the EPA "Administrator," a wise, all-powerful, god-like figure frequently referred to in this bill.

I find it very troubling that all these regulations and requirements, many unspecified, will be forced on property owners. We will be at the mercy of the whims of the "Adminstrator."

Also troubling is the monitoring of residential building energy performance and the creation of a database.

Your property will be included in a government database that monitors energy performance, and it will be expected to meet standards.

That sounds very intrusive to me.

From H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009:

SEC. 204. BUILDING ENERGY PERFORMANCE LABELING PROGRAM.

(c) BUILDING DATA ACQUISITION.—

(3) IMPROVEMENTS TO BUILDING ENERGY CONSUMPTION DATABASES.—

(B) RESIDENTIAL DATABASES.—The Administrator, in consultation with the Energy Information Administration and the Secretary of Energy, shall support improvements to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) as authorized by section 205(k) of the Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7135(k), or such other residential energy performance databases as the Administrator considers appropriate, to aid the development of achieved performance measurement protocols for residential building energy use for at least 90 percent of the residential market within 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

There's going to be a database to track residential energy performance.

Within 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act, achieved performance measurement protocols for residential building energy use for at least 90 percent of the residential market must be developed.

90 PERCENT OF THE NATION'S RESIDENTIAL MARKET WITHIN 5 YEARS!

This is Big Brother.

(d) IDENTIFICATION OF MEASUREMENT PROTOCOLS FOR ACHIEVED PERFORMANCE.—

(1) PROPOSED PROTOCOLS AND REQUIREMENTS.—

At the earliest practicable date, but not later than 1 year after identifying a building type under subsection (b)(1)(A), the Administrator shall propose a measurement protocol for that building type and a requirement detailing how to use that protocol in completing applicable commercial or residential performance labels created pursuant to this section.

(2) FINAL RULE.—After providing for notice and comment, the Administrator shall publish a final rule containing a measurement protocol and the corresponding requirements for applying that protocol. Such a rule—

(A) shall define the minimum period for measurement of energy use by buildings of that type and other details for determining achieved performance, to include leased buildings or parts thereof;

(B) shall identify necessary data collection and record retention requirements; and

(C) may specify transition rules and exemptions for classes of buildings within the building type.

Read it and weep. It goes on and on and on.

The layers and layers of regulations, the bureaucracy, the enormity of this national plan -- It's incomprehensible.

It's a mess, an extremely costly mess.

And this retrofit policy is just a tiny part of it. It's a crock.

Not only will this legislation cost American families thousands of dollars, but it will be utterly ineffective in sharply reducing greenhouse gases and reducing global warming.

From The American Spectator:

During the campaign, Obama also pledged that he would never raise taxes in any form on Americans making less than $250,000 per year. But his cap and trade tax is estimated to cost American families almost $2,000 a year when it becomes effective, growing to almost $7,000 a year for a family of four by 2035. That will be paid through higher prices for electricity, oil, gasoline, natural gas, home heating oil, coal, food, and every product that is produced or transported using energy. Remember: when the first President Bush violated his oft-repeated campaign pledge not to raise taxes, voters booted him out in the next election.

Democrats have suggested that the legislation would cost American families only $175 a year, or as little as $80. But fossil fuel use is not going to be reduced by 17%, growing to 83%, through added costs of $80 to $175 per year.

The rationale for this bill is to counter global warming by sharply reducing greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide. But even if the bill works exactly as envisioned, the most radical environmentalists admit that it will only slow temperature increases by 2050 by a ridiculous 9/100th of one degree Fahrenheit! Even after all the costs of reducing the use of fossil fuels by 83%, that is all that would result.

That is because all humans across the planet produce less than 5% of all carbon dioxide emissions. So slashing U.S. emissions won't have much effect in any event. Moreover, don't expect other nations to follow us in this foolhardy policy.

"The most radical environmentalists admit that it will only slow temperature increases by 2050 by a ridiculous 9/100th of one degree Fahrenheit!"

Cap and Trade is a joke.

It's crazy.

I can't believe the country has come to this.