Chris Van Hollen: “this bill before us establishes many important incentives for consumers to make savings through the use of improvements…”

“this bill before us establishes many important incentives for consumers to make savings through the use of improvements in energy efficiency. However, I think we all understand that those incentives only work if consumers know about them and they are easily accessible, and that is what this noncontroversial amendment aims to do. It simply adds a sixth policy option for States to consider in title IX of the underlying bill. It asks States and asks utilities to partner with us to promote the use of home energy audits, to educate homeowners about the financial and environmental benefits associated with residential energy efficiency improvements, and to publicize the availability of Federal and State incentives to make residential energy efficiency improvements more affordable. In short, this amendment represents a voluntary, commonsense way to drive consumers towards the very incentives we encourage them to use in this bill. Mr. Chairman, this comprehensive energy package represents a long-overdue course correction and a new vision for energy policy in the United States.”