WellHome Applauds House for Passage of Home Star Bill

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- WellHome, a business of Masco Home Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS), a leader in the home improvement industry, issued the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives approval of the Home Star H.R. 5019 authorization bill in a 246-161 vote on the House floor today.

"We applaud those members of the House who took an important first step today toward passing Home Star into law and putting skilled and able-bodied Americans back to work," said Larry Laseter, president of WellHome. "The Home Star program is truly a triple win for America as it will put our nation's construction force back to work, benefit homeowners through comfort and energy efficient improvements to their existing homes, and result in long-term benefits to the environment and energy independence. We urge the Senate to follow suit and approve this bill when it comes to vote so that Americans can get back to work and start saving money."

Home Star is designed to provide rebates and other financial incentives to encourage homeowners to weatherize their homes and make other energy efficiency improvements.  These incentives would stimulate a significant increase in demand for home energy improvements and require skilled labor and materials.  Unemployment in the construction industry was at 24.9% in March 2010 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"In addition to putting our nation's skilled construction trades back to work, Home Star will also benefit homeowners through comfort and energy efficiency improvements to their homes and long-term energy savings," said Laseter.  "As we roll out home performance services nationwide, our assessments show that homeowners can see energy efficiency gains of 20-50%, which is a measurable return on investment on improvements."

Masco Home Services is recognized as an innovative leader in the creation of energy efficient and comfortable homes through the Environments For Living® and Environments For Living Certified Green programs.  The Environments For Living program is a national, turnkey home performance program for residential builders designed to help them build comfortable more energy efficient homes using principles of building science.  Since 2001, more than 130,000 homes have been built under the Environments For Living banner.

WellHome has opened multiple locations across the country – including Austin, Dallas, Detroit, Orlando, Phoenix, Tucson and Nashua, NH – and is planning to open 5 additional locations May 10 – Albany, NY, Atlanta, Houston, Manassas VA, and Randoph NJ – to provide home performance services, including whole home comfort and energy efficiency assessments, recommendations and project implementation.  Unlike simple energy auditing services, WellHome provides assessments and implementation, serving as the general contractor to oversee all home improvement projects.  

"We see a great opportunity to establish leadership in this emerging industry and are choosing to invest in it now," said Laseter.  "We believe there will be significant interest in homeowners to improve their home's performance for both comfort and energy efficiency, and we want to be their trusted, one-stop solution."

About WellHome and Masco Home Services

WellHome (www.wellhome.com) is a leading home performance company and is a business of Masco Home Services, Inc., headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, and a subsidiary of leading home products company Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS). The Company provides home performance assessments conducted by Building Performance Institute-certified advisors, improvement recommendations and implementation, as well as assistance on identifying rebates and incentives.  We are recognized as an innovative leader in the creation of energy efficient and comfortable homes through the Environments For Living® and Environments For Living Certified Green programs.  The Environments For Living program is a national, turnkey home performance program for residential builders designed to help them build comfortable, more energy efficient homes using principles of building science.  Since 2001, more than 130,000 homes have been built under the Environments For Living banner. Masco Home Services is a member of the HOME STAR Coalition and a founding member of Efficiency First, two organizations leading the education efforts and advocacy for home performance.  

SOURCE WellHome