The District’s lead agency on the environment is proposing to dole out $3,000 to people who work in D.C. as an incentive to relocate from their suburban homes into the city, where their commute would demand less energy.
The proposal was put before the federal government as part of the D.C. Department of the Environment’s stimulus application for the U.S. Department of Energy’s State Energy Program. The District requested roughly $22 million, most for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and window replacements at aging school buildings and government centers — notably One Judiciary Square.
On a smaller scale is the proposed Live Near Your Work program, a $90,000 pilot for about 30 District workers. The D.C. government and participating employers would offer grants up to $3,000 eachto prospective homebuyers or renters who are eyeing a move into the city.
“The biggest driver of how much energy somebody uses is where they live,” said George Hawkins, DDOE director. “We’re trying to get people to live closer to where they work. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s something we want to pilot to see how it goes.”
Hawkins compared the “experiment” to “Cash for Clunkers.” Maybe an incentive for “somebody who was thinking about this anyway,” he said, will push them over the edge to actually move.
The Department of Energy has not yet decided whether the program is stimulus-worthy, Hawkins said, as it does not clearly fit into the State Energy Program’s bailiwick of solar panels and energy-efficient windows. It is unknown when the District might begin the effort.
“We should fix the government so people want to move here,” Dupont Circle activist Rob Halligan said of the proposal.
The grants would be available to anyone living more than five miles from his or her job. They would be required to move to within a half-mile of a Metro station, a quarter-mile of a bus route or 1.5 miles from their workplace.
Not a bad idea, said Richard Layman, director of the Citizen Planning Coalition, especially if the goal is to expand the income tax base, generate higher sales taxes and put more people on Metro. But to offer the incentive to only 30 families is a “waste,” he said; if energy efficiency is the aim, consider tax breaks for comprehensive energy efficiency programs that benefit existing D.C. households.
“To me, I just wish people were logical and didn’t need financial inducement to make intelligent decisions,” Layman said.
