The federal government made billions of dollars available in the stimulus package for weatherizing low-income homes. But what about everyone else?

A report to be released later this morning, from Vice President Joe Biden’s office and the Council on Environmental Quality, outlines a strategy for persuading more Americans to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient. Such improvements could save up to $21 billion each year, the report said.

The 14-page document, titled “Recovery through Retrofit,” does not commit additional dollars, although the billions in February’s stimulus package for state energy offices will help. But it does emphasize ways that the government can help homeowners to overcome some of the difficulties in getting access to information and financing for efficiency improvements.
Among the recommendations:

• Creating an “energy performance label” for existing homes. New homes, the report notes, can get an “Energy Star” label reflecting relatively low energy usage, but existing ones cannot. The government proposes to fix that, and also develop a “national home energy performance measure.”
• Supporting municipal financing programs that allow homeowners to put the cost of energy improvements onto their property taxes – thus avoiding upfront costs, and passing on the cost of the improvements when the home is sold. These programs are already spreading quickly, and the report proposes to make it easier for state and local governments to implement them.
• Increasing the use of energy-efficient mortgages – which, the report says, will “simplify the process of obtaining and financing energy retrofits at a home’s point of sale.”
• Expand state revolving loan funds – currently in 15 states – throughout the country. These funds, according to the report, “allow consumers to borrow money for home energy retrofits from private firms at lower interest rates.”
• Establish uniform national standards for training and certifying workers in the energy-efficiency business.

The report was created as part of the middle-class task force chaired by the vice president. In a statement, Mr. Biden called the plan “a blueprint that will create good green jobs.” He added:
“Thanks to the Recovery Act’s unprecedented investments in energy efficiency, we are making it easier for American families to retrofit their homes - helping them save money while reducing carbon emissions and creating a healthier environment for our families.”

The report was unveiled in a ceremony with a number of cabinet secretaries, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan; as well as Nancy Sutley, the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, which led the inter-departmental effort to produce the report.