Maryland Business

By: Danielle Ulman

If new legislation proposed by U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen passes, homeowners would be able to access up to $10,000 in interest-free loans to make their homes more energy efficient.

Van Hollen’s plan may have a clunky title — the National Home Energy Savings Revolving Fund Act — but it would allow local governments to loan out cash to residents who want to save some money over the long run, instead of just offering tax rebates that seem to get snatched up in milliseconds. Homeowners would repay their loans through their property taxes over a maximum of 15 years.

The fund — which would get $5 billion installments in 2010 and 2011 — would help more than 1 million homeowners to retrofit their homes and get “on the path to an energy efficient future,” according to a statement from Van Hollen’s office.

The proposal sounds like it could be promising, but the statement lacked some details, like where the government would get the $10 billion needed to make this thing work.