Typewriter

I understand from The Bulletin editorial page on December 2nd that the Bend City Council is considering requiring home owners to provide a home energy score before being able to sell their homes and to fine those in noncompliance $750 every 45 days. I believe this is unnecessary and could have numerous unintended consequences.

The only advantages that I can see from this are:

1. Burnishing the Council’s reputation as in favor of reducing energy consumption.

2. Promoting the creation of new for-fee energy assessment companies and thus creating new jobs.

The disadvantages are:

1. This action is unnecessary because home owners can accomplish the same goal at no cost by providing potential buyers with copies of the previous year’s worth of bills they have paid for energy consumption in their homes.

2. The council cannot predict how many energy assessment companies will be created, how quickly, with what qualifications, and at what price to homeowners. Will the council be responsible for vetting these new companies? Can the council guarantee that home owners who need to sell their homes quickly be able to get an energy audit score in a timely manner? If homeowners who need to sell their homes before they can acquire the energy score are fined $750 every 45 days by the council, is the council prepared to spend additional resources when home owners take legal action?

I strongly urge the Bend City Council to abandon this needless requirement which is very likely to have a host of unintended negative consequences.

— Don Kunz, Bend

Home energy score unnecessary

In the December 2 edition of the Bulletin you placed an opinion that the city council is likely to require a home energy score. This comes as no surprise as the council continues to lean to the left.

My meaning here is that the council seems to have a solution in search of a problem. They hint that the purpose is to allow a potential buyer to evaluate the energy costs. Maybe someone should tell the council that this information is readily accessible by a quick look at the last few utility bills. The article also says that the seller would have an incentive to make upgrades to the house they are selling. Really? If I want to sell my house I would make it marketable and wouldn’t be influenced by an energy report.

The penalty for not doing the energy report? Oh yes, let’s fine these reckless individuals and punish them.

The council always talks about the residents of Bend and how they are concerned about equity and compassion. I guess this doesn’t apply to folks who have to sell their homes because of financial hardship. Couple this ridiculous requirement with our exploding inflation then you have created a real bureaucratic mess. Good work council you prove once again why I’ll never live in Bend.

— Owen Herzberg, Sisters

Too many people

The survey on lack of affordable housing is yet another illustration of the tunnel vision that many in the business community appy to the problem. Previous writers have mentioned the repeated emphasis on the economy while ignoring environmental factors.

The Chamber of Commerce and Bend City Council will push for thousands of new homes in the next 20 years with less emphasis on increasing traffic congestion, crowded parks, continued paving over of open space, diminishing Cascade views declining water resources and three months waiting times to see a doctor.

The real culprit is that we have too many people now with no end in sight largely due to the millions crossing our border and overstaying their visa. Unless we approach the homeless problem with this factored into possible solutions, we will not solve the problem and our children will face even more complex problems.

I doubt our politicians will listen because they don’t really understand without a background in ecological studies, or they are concerned the topic of overpopulation will offend someone. Also, promoting more housing makes the powerful growth industry happy.

— Larry Nelson, Bend

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor.