Cash for Caulkers

Riding on the recent success of the Cash for Clunkers program that gave U.S. consumers an incentive to replace their gas-guzzling cars with fuel-efficient ones, the president is considering a program that would encourage Americans to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
John Doerr, a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, proposed creating a Cash for Caulkers program to encourage Americans to improve their homes' efficiency. Doerr made the suggestion at Monday morning's meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB).


In addition to creating energy savings, Doerr suggested that retrofitting more than 100million American homes would also create "high-wage, permanent jobs that will not be out-sourced."
"Just as the Cash for Clunkers program mobilized American car dealers to promote their fuel-efficient cars, so could a Cash for Caulkers program engage private enterprise, such as Lowe's and Home Depot, to put private capital to work," Doerr said.
The president seemed receptive to this idea, as it supports his main economic priority -- putting people to work. "We have brought the economy back from the brink. Now, we need to focus on getting people back to work," he said to the members of the PERAB.
Since the proposal has not been made formal, there were no details on its cost or scope. However, if 100 million homes were to be retrofitted, the likely cost would be substantially more than the $3 billion the government spent on the Cash for Clunkers' program.
In addition to creating green jobs to make homes more energy efficient, the president also highlighted the jobs that could be created through infrastructure repair and replacement. He asked Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, for his view on the state of America