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Saving Energy - Put Away Your Musket

By Dave Roberts

Real Estate Agent with Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty

October 31, 2011 06:42 AM

I have seen posts on Active Rain that are actively hostile to energy efficiency. I can understand why a new requirement for appraisers (SAVE act) might appear to slow up a sale. I can understand why requirements to improve the energy efficiency of homes at the time of sale is a bad idea from a transaction point of view. What I don't understand is the blind anger at the government encouraging everyone to consider energy costs in housing.

According to some, there's a long history of government "meddling" in private affairs. The knee jerk opposition to energy conservation appears to be another in a very long string of heated rhetoric, outlandish claims, and eventual acceptance of government actions that were just as bitterly opposed when they were introduced as today's energy efficiency efforts.

Overbearing Government Examples:

Cars have to have seat belts
Cigarettes have to have warning labels
Young children can't work in dangerous jobs
Companies can't dump raw sewage and pollutants into rivers
Food has to be safe

I don't know about you, but I don't feel all that hostile to those regulations. The current push by government at many levels to increase energy efficiency comes from the same impulse to make things better in the future. For example, if your local builder doesn't use appropriate levels of insulation in the walls, your energy bills will be far higher than they have to be and going back to insulate after the building is finished isn't practical in many cases. Insisting on doing things that save money in the long run may cost the builder more, but it's going to save the buyer far more money in the long run. For another example, installing a higher efficiency HVAC system may cost a few hundred dollars more initially, but will keep utility bills lower for the life of the system. This principle of looking at the life-cycle cost of energy efficiency is a smart way to make sure we do the right things today.

Requiring appraisers to think about energy is a way to enable home buyers who want to have highly efficient homes to get credit for the fact that their energy bills will be lower. Maybe we can find smarter ways to do the same thing than using appraisers, but the principle of giving consideration to energy issues when figuring ability to make payments on a mortage isn't an odd requirement. It shouldn't make you want to pull your musket off the wall to protest tyranny.

Saving energy is a benefit to everyone in this country whether they are paying the bills or not. Using less means the demand is less which helps moderate cost increases for everyone. The next time someone is outraged about an energy efficiency meausure, stop to think about why we are trying to consume less. Your grandchildren will thank you.

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Joe Petrowsky

Mortgage Consultant, Right Trac Financial Group, Inc. NMLS # 2709 - Manchester, CT

Your Mortgage Consultant for Life

I would disagree about the amount of regulations in this country. Many business have been regulated right out of business. Conserving energy is great I'm all for it, but as long as it is each person's choice.

Oct 31, 2011 06:49 AM

Dave Roberts

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

Joe, the problem with your solution is that builders almost always choose the cheaper energy solutions so they can have a less expensive product to sell. The California experience with energy is that government and builders working together can come up with a package of energy conservation measures that make economic sense that all builder have to install. That keeps one builder from installing worse conservation measures to get a competitive advantage. It has worked here (as Title 24) for more than thirty years and California has by far the most energy efficient housing in the country. That wouldn't have happened without smart regulations. I'm not in favor of stupid regulations, of which there are many. This is one that happens to make sense.

Oct 31, 2011 06:57 AM

Dick Greenberg

New Paradigm Partners LLC - Fort Collins, CO

Northern Colorado Residential Real Estate

Hi Dave - I completely agree with you about this, both in general terms of government regulations and specifically about energy. We might not like the ways that our government has chosen to regulate specific activities, but you'd think we would have all had adeqaute evidence by now about the effects of unregulated behavior. I think the issue here is simply better government, not the absence thereof.

And as for energy efficiency, so much of our geopolitical strategy (if you can even use the word stratgey) is determined by the trap we've set for ourselves, with our lack of a coherent and sane energy policy, that we find ourselves wasting precious lives in far off places in pursuit of interests that serve us incredibly poorly. A little extra hassle on appraisals doesn't seem too significant in the long run.

Oct 31, 2011 07:25 AM

Dave Roberts

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

Dick - Thanks for the always astute comment. I agree completely about the geopolitical strategy that we aren't engaged with. As early as 1948 we understood that we were dependent on the Middle East for oil and we've had more than a half century to do something about it. We maxed out our domestic oil production decades ago and "drill, baby, drill" won't make a damn bit of difference. Building and buying more energy efficient homes, cars, and appliances is about as much as the average citizen can do. That and electing smarter politicians who care about issues longer lasting than the life of a fruit fly.

Oct 31, 2011 07:42 AM

Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate

Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL

Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

Hi, Dave.

We have not come close to "maxing out our domestic oil production". Known reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska will last for at least 300 years at our current rate of consumption (Google it).

China, Brazil, Venezuela, even Spain (via Cuba) are drilling in the Gulf of Mexico just a short distance from the Florida Keys.

Alaska is "off limits" because of the Obama EPA. For what reason? A herd of Caribou might have to move?

We continue to give money to Islamic Terrorist Nations for oil that we could be pumping here in America.

Oct 31, 2011 05:15 PM

Dave Roberts

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

Fred - Check out this chart from the government on oil and natural gas production since 1949. We peaked in 1970 at 9.6 million barrels a day. We were at 5.5 million barrels in 2010. We just don't have a big enough share of the world's oil to make a differene.

http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec5_5.pdf

Oct 31, 2011 05:30 PM

Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate

Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL

Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

Dave, here is my question on a slightly different note... why are we still using Internal Combustion Engines that were invented in the 1890's?

Can't we come up with a more energy efficient alternative for our cars, after 120 years?

Or is "Big Oil" buying up the Patents for any Technology that would threaten their Monolopy and their Income?

Oct 31, 2011 05:41 PM

Dave Roberts

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

Fred - I think if you look at the Prius, the Mercedes Blue-Tec diesel, and some of the VW turbo diesels you can see a future that uses traditional engines but gets a lot more mileage per gallon. I think electric cars are going to be huge as we master ever-better battery technology. Better batteries is the kind of R & D work we do really well. Electricity is going to be much more central to all our transportation since we can generate it so many different ways. Trains running east and west on the northern tier of the country could all be powered out of the wind resource in the Dakotas. Same thing on a southern route with west Texas wind. Between those two regions we have enough energy to power the country completely many times over.

On the other hand, I think we'll need all the oil that our big oil firms can come up with over the next generation as we start transitioning to a world without oil. We will have an electric transportation starting now with the Leaf and Volt, but it's just a beginning.

Oh yeah, I think natural gas is a great transportation fuel as well, especially for long haul trucks and buses.

Oct 31, 2011 05:55 PM

David Gibson CNE, 719-304-4684 ~ Colorado Springs Relocation

Colorado Real Estate Advisers LLC - Colorado Springs, CO

Relocation, Luxury & Lifestyle residential

Dave I’m not opposed to the concept but let’s get it done other than making it a part of the mortgage process. Give all owners the option of implementing these items not just those buying a house.

Nov 01, 2011 07:11 AM

Dave Roberts

Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

David - Thanks for you input. The best program I have seen for letting every owner make good conservation improvements is the PACE program. Apart from that, this program is specifically couple to the mortgage market as a way to assess ability to pay based on lower utility bills. Kind of hard to separate it from mortgages.

Nov 01, 2011 07:29 AM