Stimulus Bill = Weatherization Money for Homeowners

If you have an extra 2 days, or four, here is a link to information on the Stimulus bill and the proportioned amounts of money that will go to each area in our economy. As I find relevant information for our customers, I will pass those sections along.

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/h1/Recovery_Bill_Div_A.pdf

One exciting piece of information I've found so far is that within this proposal, the Federal Government is proposing to turn the 30% Solar Energy Tax credit into a grant. This means that instead of having to have 30% of the cost up front and have the repayment be stretched over many years, it will be paid for up front.

This is a large factor for several groups of people (mainly):

• Self-employed families that pay the majority of their federal income tax as "Self Employed" tax which can't be recovered under any current federal income tax and/or the credits can't be used at the state level either.
• Cash/Credit strapped Families/Homeowners who are very interested in the benefits of adding Solar PV or Water to their homes but don't have the large out of pocket amount up front. With tightening Home Equity Loans and credit in general, it can also be difficult to qualify for any loan to pay for Solar during these hard economic times.

As always, when we find relevant new information we will post it here. We're always interested in people's discussion and insight on these issues. We like to learn and hear all perspectives so feel free to post comments.