thinking the white house wants to persuade more americans to adopt. through a proposal called home star. the plan is still working its way through congress, but would offer rebates of up to $3 thourk for upgrades like new appliances, furnaces and insulation. with additional rebates possible after a full home energy audit. it s quickly earned the nickname, cash for caulkers. this is modeled after another government program from last year, cash for clunkers, which offered car buyers a rebate for trading in their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles. now people could get a payback for investing in energy savers at home. let me show you. from graphty windows to leaking ducts, the government s goal is to promote energy efficiency as well as jobs. that s where people like david come in. david, what s the problem you re trying to fix here. well, in most homes the
across this country. an industry that s making solar panels and building wind turbines, producing cutting edge batteries for fuel-efficient cars and trucks and helping consumers get more control over their energy bills. and that s also why earlier this week i urged congress to enact a new initiative we re calling home star that would offer homeowners rebates for making their homes more energy efficient. rebates worth up to $1500 for individual home upgrades and up to $3,000 for retrofitting their entire home. so if they re getting this good information from opower and they see that, boy, that drafty window is costing me a couple of hundred bucks a year, they re now going to have an incentive to go to home depots or go to lowe s to hire a certified contractor and make the changes that will ultimately pay for themselves, improve our environment and improve our economy. i want to thank, by the way, your home state senator, mark warner, for his great work on home star in the senate.
and this company is a great emblem for that. that s why my administration s taking steps to support a thriving clean energy industry across this country. an industry that s making solar panels and building wind turbines, producing cutting edge batteries for fuel efficient cars and trucks and helping consumers get more control over their energy bills. and that s also why earlier this week i urged congress to enact home star that would offer homeowners rebates for making their homes more energy efficient. rebates worth up to $1,500 for individual home upgrades and up to $3,000 for retrofitting their entire home. so if they re getting this good information from opower and they see, boy, that drafty window is costing me a couple hundred bucks a year, they re now going to have an incentive to go to home depots or go to lowe s to hire a certified contractor and make the changes that will ultimately pay for themselves, improve our environment, and
right there when you paid at the cash register, you d get that money. you wouldn t have to mail in a long form, wait for a check to arrive a month later. now, we know this will save families as much as several hundred dollars on their utilities. we know it will make our economy less dependent on fossil fuels, helping to protect the planet for future generations. but i want to emphasize that home star will also create business and spur hiring up and down the economy. i was just meeting with a number of business leaders in different segments of this industry. we ve got the manufacturers, making insulation and windows and other products. we ve got folks who are contractors, so stand up, guys, the guys i just met with.
program called home star. it s designed to save you a little money, make your home a little more energy efficient and create jobs all at once. cnn senior white house correspondent ed henry joins me from savannah. ed, i m guessing you are somewhere inside the savannah technical college. walk me through where you are and what he will be talking about. reporter: well, it is actually kind of an interesting behind-the-scenes story about that. it s sort of a machine shop here at savannah technical college. the president s speech is going to be a five, six-minute walk away from here. and originally the white house press was going to set up and do live shots like this from the library right near where the president is going to speak in the college, but white house staff we re told last night as they were putting all this together decided that a better backdrop for them would be something like this machine shop. they thought the library we re told was not the best backdrop. it gives you an id