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Resident urges transferable energy audits to spur home upgrades, workforce hiring
Summary
At the City Utilities Committee meeting, a resident urged the committee to adopt legislation making energy audits transferable and prioritized for locally trained workers to expand retrofits and training. Committee leadership said they will consult the Office of Sustainability.
Mr. Costco Jones, a member of the public, told the City Utilities Committee that the city should adopt legislation to replace traditional real estate inspections with transferable energy audits to create market demand for home energy work and support workforce development.
"It's basically, supposed to put in place, legislation that will help replace the, real estate inspection with, energy audit," Mr. Jones said, urging the committee to allow audits to be "transferable, so to speak" and to prioritize graduates of local workforce programs for pilot opportunities.
Jones highlighted regional housing and market figures, saying "about 19,000 homes, mostly starter homes, were bought up by 3 companies within the metro Atlanta area," and argued that a roughly $850 energy audit could create an approximately $11,000,000 market if broadly deployed. He also said "$165,000,000 was put into the state from the solar for all funds" and described energy audits as a prerequisite to best-practice solar installations.
Jones urged the committee to use local policy to influence pilot programs he said are being run by "GIFA," to ensure participants trained through local municipal utility (MPU) and workforce programs can access pilots and stack federal, state and city incentives. He also raised concerns that entry-level audit jobs currently do not pay living wages.
The committee chair responded that he would "be reaching out to the office of sustainability, Miss Chandra Farley" and noted existing advisory boards; he also said he would try to schedule follow-up conversations and informational meetings in February or March.
Why it matters: If the proposals Jones described were converted into policy, they would aim to increase local participation in retrofit and solar markets, create training-to-employment pathways and influence which contractors can access pilot funds. No ordinance or formal committee action on these ideas was proposed or taken during the meeting; Jones's remarks were part of the public comment period.
Details from the record: Jones referenced the GIFA pilot, the Weatherize program rollout, a $165 million state solar fund and the potential market value of citywide audit adoption. The committee chair pledged to contact the Office of Sustainability for follow-up.
No formal motion or vote was taken on the concept during the meeting. The record shows Jones spoke during the public comment segment and the chair committed to further outreach.
