Dear Editor,
As a Realtor® Director and a resident of Wilmington, I am concerned that a bill now before the Conference Committee on Energy Diversity on Beacon Hill could unfairly penalize low- and moderate income homeowners and would be extremely harmful to the Massachusetts housing market.
While the bill, S.2400, An Act to promote energy diversity, contains several good provisions, those that call for mandatory home energy inspections and a label before selling a home is alarming. The argument that an energy label on a home is like MPG or Energy Star is not accurate as those are only applied to new cars and appliances.
In addition, these requirements would cause additional delays and complicate an already complicated home sale process and stigmatize older homes. The requirement would disproportionately hurt home values for low- and moderate-income homeowners who could not afford to make the upgrades required to get a good grade.
According to the American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, Massachusetts has been the number one most energy efficient state in the country since 2011. Our current incentive-based approach is working. Mandatory energy inspections and home energy labels will not promote energy efficiency. A continued common sense strategy is the direction we need to go.
I urge the Conference Committee to reject the mandatory energy inspection/labeling provisions they are considering.
Sincerely,
Jacquelyn Santini
Wilmington
RE/MAX Encore
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