April 6, 2010, Washington D.C. – As the national debate moves from health care to spurring economic growth, U.S. Senator Mark Pryor and Fayetteville, Ark. Mayor Lioneld Jordan joined today with the Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy to show their support for Building STAR. Building STAR, a job-creation proposal of rebates and financing provisions to quickly put people to work by conducting energy-efficient retrofits, would create about 1,650 jobs across the state of Arkansas.

“Buildings represent 40 percent of the energy used in the United States, and many have old equipment that waste energy and money,” Senator Pryor said. “Investing in energy-efficiency retrofits for industrial, commercial and multi-family buildings can drive economic recovery by saving small businesses money, spurring construction and manufacturing, and creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs across America.”

Building STAR’s package of rebates and financing provisions creates an incentive for building owners to retrofit their commercial, multi-family and industrial buildings with energy-efficient equipment and materials. The program will also provide direct benefit to small businesses, including the 91 percent of commercial contractors that have fewer than 20 employees. The retrofits would save consumers $3.3 billion per year by the end of 2011.

“At a time when one-in-four of the nation's skilled construction workers are sitting on the sidelines, leading real estate owners say they will put the Building STAR incentives to work right away to make their properties more energy-efficient,” said Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition. “This is a jobs bill that will have an immediate impact in Arkansas and across the country.”

Senator Pryor, Mayor Jordan and the Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy’s announcement about Building STAR coincided with the Arkansas stop for the Clean Energy Road Show, an effort to bring together government, business, labor and environmental representatives to find ways to spur collaborative public-private investment in the clean energy economy, create quality jobs and improve the environment.

"Senator Pryor is an effective and stalwart energy efficiency ‘warrior’ both in his home state and the Nation's Capitol," said Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan, adding, "Our organization, and its mission to advance energy efficiency world-wide, have benefited enormously from the senator's service as our honorary chair and his drive for meaningful, federal clean energy legislation."

Callahan continued: "Sen. Pryor's pragmatic commitment to energy efficiency, through sponsorship of federal policy proposals like Building STAR, which would provide rebates for commercial building owners who pursue energy-efficiency retrofits, is good for our economy, our energy security and our environment. Building STAR, if enacted, would fund 423,000 building retrofits, create 150,000 new American jobs, and save American businesses and consumers $3 billion in avoided energy costs, in addition to avoiding CO2 emissions equivalent to taking four million cars off the road."

Building STAR was introduced in March as S. 3079, the “Building STAR Energy Efficiency Rebate Act of 2010.” With $6 billion in federal spending, Building STAR would spur $18 to $24 billion in total investment, providing a model for public-private partnerships and maximizing the impact on jobs and the economy. The Building STAR coalition has rapidly grown to include 80 business, real estate, financial, consumer and energy efficiency entities.

For more information about Building STAR, please visit www.rebuildingamerica.org.