Buildings: Retrofit Incentives Backed By White House

White House officials gathered a group of industry, community and union leaders on Aug. 24 to drum up support for a climate-change bill. At that meeting, the White House officials said they hope to work to create incentives to encourage building owners to retrofit facilities to reduce energy costs, says one attendee, Charlie Bacon, CEO of Limbach Facility Services, a Pittsburgh-based mechanical contractor. Although providing little detail, Van Jones, a special advisor on green jobs for the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, said the administration would support more incentives to create jobs and reduce dependence on imported oil. Bacon says he was pleased with the meeting’s outcome. “Buildings account for almost half of the energy used in the U.S.,” he said.