At the risk of sounding nasty, I am impelled to ask: if you're this concerned about the environment that you want the government to mandate change, why haven't you upgraded your house yourself?

If the windows are drafty, the furnace burns oil, and the walls are uninsulated..... FIX or REPLACE THEM. Or move.

to the comment above, it could be because the house holds sentimental value. Its just a guess, but America will never beat Europe in this "green" race, the immigrants coming over here are making it ridiculously impossible.

I wholeheartedly agree with GH (first poster)! Why wouldn't you make improvements yourself? You would obviously be the beneficiary even if you rent. Don't tell me it costs too much, I know better!

I've bought storm doors and door seals and window sealing stuff at yard sales for next to nothing and done the work myself. It's called being poor and learn by doing.

GH: I have every intention of doing the upgrades in time, definitely! I've just only been in the house a year and all the money went into the downpayment. The total cost of replacing all the windows, blowing insulation into the walls, and converting the heat from oil to gas is right up around $20,000. So for now, it's one step at a time.

That said, when we bought the house, we did it with particular trade-offs in mind. Yes, it's old and hasn't seen upgrades that would make it more efficient. But it's in a dense urban area which allows us both to bike or walk to our jobs, thereby taking us out of car-commuting pool.

i have read this artical and i have a wonderful idea. lets really go green. A straw bale house they are cheaper to build and they are very energy efficient.I have been all over the net and done a lot of research to find out how they are made. a lot of the vidoes i have found have shown women building these houses. it tells you that it cost around ten dollars a month to heat or cool these houses are more insulated that regular insulated houses. so lets use the things that mother nature put here for us to use. You can also buy a book about how to build them on the net. i am not the one selling them.

The average builder in North America has only one goal; meet minimum code and then get out of Dodge. The smart ones will install upgraded windows or insulation, but these guys are scarce. If you want to give away 45% to 55% (or more) of your income in taxes, go and live in Europe...

If you are like me, most people are living hand to mouth, pay to pay, so the idea of putting out 5 to 15 thousand dollars (remember, not everyone is handy and not every one has access to 'used' windows or the spare cash to put them in) is daunting. Lori, it would be great if we could all have straw houses, but the reality is that if I demolished the house I'm in to build a straw house, municipal bylaws would prevent me from building it...

I am like Matt in that I am in an older house and after six years, just getting to the windows, never mind anything else. Government programs are not a great help because where I am, you have to put up the money and install BEFORE you get the rebate.

Green building materials are a bit of a misnomer because they all rely on carbon energy in the transport and manufacturing part of the supply chains. What makes a building product green? Anyone made a brick without firing up a kiln lately?

I think the best we do is save where we can a plan for upgrades..

There are builders out there that are taking green to the next level; our company in Michigan for example introduced green built homes that are priced in-line with traditional construction. We have overcome the biggest hurdle that would stop people from considering green building, which was an extra 15-20% extra cost associated with this type of design and construction.

Kamil Krainski
Green Building Made Simple
http://www.livngspacebuilders.com

lnwolf41 . The main reason we haven't gone green in a big way is that most big money companines are being run by the
old guys that don't do change,hences factories(what are left)
didn't upgrade for over 50 years, when the japanese came over with better built everything. Now we play catchup with
the rest of the world. Also in congress the republicans and
democrats would rather screw each other then fix our problems.