“Cash for Caulkers”……

• Posted by ToddSullivan
• on December 11th, 2009

Who benefits?

The obvious retailer’s are Home Depot (HD), Lowes (LOW) and Sears Holdings (SHLD).

All three offer 1 stop shopping for appliances and home remodeling services with Sears being #1 in the appliance category.

From CNN Money:

The program contains two parts: money for homeowners for efficiency projects, and money for companies in the renewable energy and efficiency space.

The plan will likely create a new program where private contractors conduct home energy audits, buy the necessary gear and install it, according to a staffer on the Senate Energy Committee and Nadel at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Big-ticket items like air conditioners, heating systems, washing machines, refrigerators, windows and insulation would likely be covered, Nadel said.

Consumers might be eligible for a 50% rebate on both the price of the equipment and the installation, up to $12,000, said Nadel. So far, there is no income restriction on who is eligible. That would mean a household could spend as much as $24,000 on upgrades and get half back.

Homes that take full advantage of the program could see their energy bills drop as much as 20%, he said. The program is expected to cost in the $10 billion range.

It’s not clear how the home efficiency plan would be administered – the government may issue rebates to consumers directly, homeowners might get a tax credit, or the program could be run via state agencies.

If consumers have to spend a lot of money up front to get the credit, it could throw a wrench in the works, David Kreutzer, an energy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told CNN.

“This will not be something that’s attractive to people who are having trouble already making their budget payments month to month or week to week,” he said.

To keep consumers from having to spend thousands of dollars before getting reimbursed, Nadel said, one idea is to have contractors or big box retailers pay part of the cost up front.

Another beneficiary? Orion Energy (see why we bought it here).

Further, Bill Ackman has this to say about Sears just this week:

From bnet

That might explain Ackman’s affinity for Sears Holdings (SHLD), a company that continually reports dismal sales figures. The retailer’s two chains, Sears and Kmart, recorded a third-quarter same-store sales decrease of 2.3 percent and total revenues fell $470 million from the same period a year ago. The low sales didn’t help it’s bottom line, though, as the company reported a $106-million operating loss.

Nevertheless, Ackman believes in Sears as a viable operator and said nice things about its often-criticized chairman Edward Lampert. “He’s underestimated,” Ackman told the audience of shopping-center owners and real estate brokers. “He’s going to be running a little mall within your mall.

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