Congressional Resolution Promotes Eco-Bunkers

Nanny State Liberation Front ^ | June 22, 2010 | Nanny State Liberation Front

[H8LIBERALS]

In case you missed it, last week (June 13-19) was declared by a congressional resolution to be “High-Performance Building Week.” It wasn’t quite the most creative or intriguing name for a national ‘holiday,’ but properly referring to it as “Go Broke Trying to Green Your Office, School and Other Buildings Week” was too long-winded and probably would have generated unwanted attention to a handful of congressional tree-huggers’ plans to bankrupt builders before they even lay the foundations.

According to H. Res. 1407, High-Performance Building Week recognizes “the importance of high-performance buildings through the inclusion of a definition of high-performance buildings in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.” It continues with a long list of reasons why American citizens, businesses, federal, state and local officials should embrace ‘green’ initiatives to, basically, stop constructing buildings that consume too much energy and adopt newer and much more expensive technologies that will, in theory, save the planet.

Did you know that these so-called high-performance buildings can “effectively guard against natural and human-caused events and disasters, including fire, water, wind, noise, crime, and terrorism?” It sure sounds like Congress is advocating the construction of impenetrable underground bunkers, but don’t put the tinfoil hat on us yet ...

[M. Dodge Thomas]

I inspect old and new construction for a living.

It’s not unusual for me to see a $2M residence where the purchasers will spend $150K to upgrade the kitchen but won’t spend $1500 for improved energy efficiency with full payback within a decade.

If it was just a question of their spending “their money as they please” I would not care, but everyone else has to pay for the additional infrastructure to supply that natural gas, irrespective of the fact that most of us are consuming a *lot* less of it to heat our own homes.

So from my perspective, providing that infrastructure to high volume lower-efficiency users is a “tax” levied on the rest of us.