- We encourage you to read the provisions of the Cap and
Trade Bill that has passed the House of Representatives and being considered
by the Senate. We are ready to join the next march on Washington!
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- This Congress and whoever on their staffs that write
this junk are truly out to destroy the middle class of the USA¡ .
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- A License Required for your house
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- Thinking about selling your house ¨C A look at H.R.
2454 (Cap and trade bill) This is unbelievable!
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- Only the beginning from this administration! Home owners
take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!
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- Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade
Act, you won¡t be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to
comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R.
2454, the ¡°Cap & Trade¡± bill passed by the
House of Representatives, if also passed by the Senate, will be the largest
tax increase any of us has ever experienced.
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- The Congressional Budget Office (supposedly non-partisan)
estimates that in just a few years the average cost to every family of
four will be $6,800 per year.
- No one is excluded.
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- However, once the lower classes feel the pinch in their
wallets, you can be sure these voters get a tax refund (even if they pay
no taxes at all) to offset this new cost. Thus, you Mr. and Mrs. Middle
Class America will have to pay even more since additional tax dollars will
be needed to bail out everyone else.
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- But wait. This awful bill (that no one in Congress has
actually read) has many more surprises in it. Probably the worst one is
this:
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- A year from now you won¡t be able to sell your
house. Yes, you read that right.
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- The caveat is (there always is a caveat) that if you
have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you
can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes (¡±mobile
homes¡±) are included.
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- In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home
without the permission of the EPA administrator.
- To get this permission, you will have to have the energy
efficiency of your home measured.
- Then the government will tell you what your new energy
efficiency requirement is and you will be forced to make modifications
to your home under the retrofit provisions of this Act to comply with the
new energy and water efficiency requirements.
- Then you will have to get your home measured again and
get a license (called a ¡°label¡± in the Act) that
must be posted on your property to show what your efficiency rating is;
sort of like the Energy Star efficiency rating label on your refrigerator
or air conditioner.
- If you don¡t get a high enough rating, you can¡t
sell. And, the EPA administrator is authorized to raise the standards every
year, even above the automatic energy efficiency increases built into the
Act.
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- The EPA administrator, appointed by the President, will
run the Cap & Trade program (AKA the ¡°American Clean Energy
and Security Act of 2009¡å) and is authorized to make any future
changes to the regulations and standards he alone determines to be in the
government¡s best interest. Requirements are set low initial y so
the bill will pass Congress; then the Administrator can set much tougher
new standards every year.
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- The Act itself contains annual required increases in
energy efficiency for private and commercial residences and buildings.
- However, the EPA administrator can set higher standards
at any time.
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- Section 202
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- Building Retrofit Program mandates a national retrofit
program to increase the energy efficiency of all existing homes across
America .
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- Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Act, you won¡t
be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy
and water efficiency standards of this Act.
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- You had better sell soon, because the standards will
be raised each year and will be really hard (i.e., ex$pen$ive) to meet
in a few years. Oh, goody! The Act allows the government to give you a
grant of several thousand dollars to comply with the retrofit program requirements
if you meet certain energy efficiency levels. But, wait, the State can
set additional requirements on who qualifies to receive the grants.
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- You should expect requirements such as ¡°can¡t
have an income of more than $50K per year¡±, ¡°home
selling price can¡t be more than $125K¡±, or anything
else to target the upper middle class (and that¡s YOU) and prevent
them from qualifying for the grants.
- Most of us won¡t get a dime and will have to pay
the entire cost of the retrofit out of our own pockets. More transfer of
wealth, more ¡°change you can believe in.¡±
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- Section 204
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- Building Energy Performance Labeling Program establishes
a labeling program that for each individual residence will identify the
achieved energy efficiency performance for ¡°at least 90 percent
of the residential market within 5 years after the date of the enactment
of this Act.¡±
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- This means that within 5 years 90% of all residential
homes in the U.S. must be measured and labeled. The EPA administrator will
get $50M each year to enforce the labeling program. The Secretary of the
Department of Energy will get an additional $20M each year to help enforce
the labeling program. Some of this money will, of course, be spent on coming
up with tougher standards each year.
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- Oh, the label will be like a license for your car. You
will be required to post the label in a conspicuous location in your home
and will not be allowed to sell your home without having this label.
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- And, just like your car license, you will probably be
required to get a new label every so often ¨C maybe every year.
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- But, the government estimates the cost of measuring the
energy efficiency of your home should only cost about $200 each time.
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- Remember what they said about the auto smog inspections
when they first started: that in California it would only cost $15. That
was when the program started. Now the cost is about $50 for the inspection
and certificate; a 333% increase. Expect the same from the home labeling
program.
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- Section 304
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- Greater Energy Efficiency in Building Codes establishes
new energy efficiency guidelines for the National Building Code and mandates
at 304(d), Application of National Code to State and Local Jurisdictions,
that 1 year after enactment of this Act, all state and local jurisdictions
must adopt the National Building Code energy efficiency provisions or must
obtain a certification from the federal government that their state and/or
local codes have been brought into full compliance with the National Building
Code energy efficiency standards.
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- H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009 (GovTrack.us)
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