The Douglas administration is in a fevered state over proving that the Department of Public Service proposed the idea of helping people take out lower-interest loans to make their homes more energy efficient back in February and April. So fevered that gubernatorial spokesman Jason Gibbs has this morning sent two "urgent" e-mails on the subject.
This is in response to legislative leaders' accusations that the proposal Douglas made public yesterday a last-minute attempt to pre-empt Al Gore's input.
The proposal made to legislators during the session looked like this:
As part of the Departments review, it shall identify opportunities
including but not limited to the following strategies:
- Empower consumers
through better education and improved access to energy efficiency service
through an efficiency information clearinghouse;
- Promote greater access to
financing for investments in thermal efficiency at favorable rates;
- Encourage the development of a stronger and more effective market for efficiency
services;
- Empower local public institutions and community groups to better
access capital, knowledge, and professional advice for efficiency
improvements;
- Encourage thermal efficiency improvements through tax
incentives;
- Establish more effective thermal efficiency programs that
strategically target opportunities at the time of consumers make major
investment decisions in homes, businesses, or equipment;
- Foster improvements to existing standards and codes to ensure that all new construction and remodeling designs are built and maintained according to the best standards that can cost-effectively be achieved.
Indeed, it indicates that the administration was thinking along the lines of the sort of program Douglas proposed yesterday. But it's not exactly fleshed-out with specifics and it's not something the governor apparently persisted with in meetings with legislative leaders. He might have been having too much fun watching them hang themselves over the ever-changing tax that goes with their bill.
This is a case of the two entities - the governor and the Legislature - sitting with their backs to each other, arms folded stubbornly, entrenched in their own ideas. Will they ever come together on this issue? It's hard to imagine.
- Terri Hallenbeck
