[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HOMES ACT

  (Mr. WELCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, energy efficiency investments work. A recent 
study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that improving 
the airtightness in homes would achieve $33 billion in annual energy 
savings.
  Across the country, 113 million homes use 23 percent of U.S. sourced 
energy, and the largest potential is in the hottest and the coldest 
climates.
  In Vermont, we are leading the country on energy efficiency, 
demonstrating the potential these home improvements can have for saving 
money and protecting the environment.
  I have introduced bipartisan legislation with my good friend and 
Republican colleague, Representative McKinley, that would provide 
homeowners with an incentive to install precisely these kinds of 
efficiency measures in their own homes.
  Whatever your preferred source of energy, we can all agree that using 
less energy is good for the taxpayer and the environment. This is 
something we can and should work together on accomplishing.
  I encourage everyone to read Lawrence Berkeley's article in the 
science digest Energy and Buildings. It can be found at 
www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild.

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