Insider: Energy Trust of Oregon Newsletter

In this month's issue of Insider, there is a breakdown of 5 ways Oregonians will see Stimulus money that is coming in to Oregon:
1. Grants to states under the State Energy Program.
2. Block Grants to State, Local and Tribal Governments with a possibility that Energy Trust can be contracted to manage these grants.
3. Weatherization Assistance, higher income limits and possibility of up to $6500 in assistance per home.
4. Residential Tax Credits, (Details and Links in March 10, 2009 blog post).
5. Renewable Energy Tax Credits.

You can read Energy Trust of Oregon's summary on these issues here:

http://www.energytrust.org/TA/insider/0903/stim_pack.html

Stimulus Bill will bring more money to homeowners

As a Green Builder and Home Performance contractor, we are constantly researching the ever changing incentives, tax credits and rebates that are out there for our customers. We believe that providing this education and information to a homeowner can be challenging when so much keeps changing. We were sent this email message from a business contact in Louisiana and thought it summarized the expectations from this Stimulus bill fairly clearly.

http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2009-03-09/Front+Page/index.html

One thing to note is that the IRS tax form at the bottom is for 2008 and still includes the cap on renewable energy installations, where the stimulus removed caps and states that 30% of the cost can be recovered.

ENERGY STAR(R) has a link on their website detailing the changes as well. They too point to a 2008 tax form 5695 so the IRS may not publish the 2009 forms until late 2009 or early 2010 according to this site. The specific requirements on the ENERGY STAR site are very helpful for homeowners, and all of us contractors that wish to provide this information to our customers. The link can be accessed here:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits#s1

There are some exciting changes in this bill that will allow homeowners to make the investment in their homes and shorten the payback period considerably.

As always, if you have questions, we'd be happy to try to find answers for you!