What got dropped in at 3:09 am that noboby read!

(Minority John Boehner at least tried to read the 300 pages on the floor!.)

To Read Part 2 click here for a special report entitled, Cap and trade, the Demise of the US.

If you have been following the news lately, the Cap and trade bill has received a lot of coverage.  The 300 page amendment that was put in is quite honesty a death knell to the housing industry.

Here is why; I have read the bill twice and here is what I have gleaned so far.

Mandatory retro-fitting. I will address just existing home sales in this article. In order for you to sell your home you will have to pass an energy audit to use an FHA loan. The seller will have to pay for the audit of course, but if your appliances, water and electricity usage is determined to be below standards in order to sell you will have to bring then up to standards, you will be forced to spend money. The improvements must achieve a 20% improvement on energy usage to qualify. Again a second audit will be required to certify your house for sale. So if your  microwave, water tank and air conditioning is non-compliant, you can’t sell under this program.

Here is a direct quote under qualifying for a Government loan:

“In the case only of an existing structure, where determined cost effective, the structure has undergone rehabilitation or improvements, completed after the date of the enactment of this Act, and the energy consumption for the structure has been reduced by at least 20 percent from the previous level of  more consumption, as determined in accordance with energy audits performed both before and after any rehabilitation or improvements undertaken to reduce such consumption.”

 If you own a house were you cannot add insulation due to the lack of space in the walls, your house will be de-valued under the program. If you just bought a new water tank, and it wasn’t the tank-less variety, you will have to buy another one. Tank-less water heaters require a larger flu which means you will have to go into the roof and re-vent the flu pipe and make the hole bigger. If your windows don’t meet the energy leakage test, you get to buy some new ones.  Won’t matter if the buyer is ok with the house, if they are using Government financing, you have to fix or not sell.

If you have older water fixtures, you will be required to upgrade to the compliant ones, return the older ones to a Gov’t agency, or other governing body, so they can make a fee from the new recycling program they will be allowed to create under this bill. I can guarantee water districts (etc.) will quickly figure out that upon the sale of a house they can grab some money and will mandate this.

Here is a direct quote.

“the amount necessary to change consumer behavior to purchase water efficient products and services.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg that I have been able to pull out of the 300 page amendment. They have stuff in the bill on how to dispose of trade-in cars, the crushing and disposal of them down to the drivetrains, engines and mandatory record keeping. I will continue to examine and report all the stuff that was dumped in the bill that your Congressperson voted for and never read. That in itself is a travesty perpetuated on you, and me, the voter!

HERE is John Boehners transcript of his House speech. It is worth the read.

The Paul Smith for Congress website is www.paulsmithforcongress.org
Paul Smith.  Republican Candidate for the 5th Congressional District (Sacramento)