If you’re considering green technology options for your environmentally aware lifestyle, it’s important to pay attention to the political environment to better understand your options. Use the criteria below for helping you determine whether you should choose to incorporate green technology into your lifestyle.
Use helpful websites to find out whether tax credits are available for specific types of green technology. For instance, in the US, if you go to Energystar.gov, you’ll find a list of tax credits and their expiration dates along with details about eligible products.
If you’re considering purchasing an energy-efficient car, you can use the US government’s Fueleconomy.gov website for a list of tax credits. Read the provisions about tax credits for vehicles carefully and make sure you also ask the car dealership with whom you’re conducting business whether your understanding of the vehicle tax credit is accurate.
State policies vary greatly when it comes to incentivizing green technology. Use websites like Dsireusa.org, (Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency) to clarify your state’s programs supporting green technology.
While the database is primarily concerned with business incentives for green technology, by understanding your state’s commitments to green technology by viewing their financial support of such industry, you’ll be better able to determine whether a specific green technology choice is good for you.
An expert from modeles de maisons en bois told us to “listen to your state’s politicians in order to predict whether elections will change the popularity of green technology”. Today both major parties support environmental protections and green technology, but the extent to which such programs are supported in the face of competing budgetary demands varies.
The significance of who’s in office can be a major factor in helping you determine whether your green technology company will still be around in the event funding is reduced or cut off.
Consider whether there have been rampant complaints about a specific technology, especially stories that have gained public attention because these likely indicate that there will be an industry change in the product you’re considering which indicates you should wait before purchasing it.
Consider whether the politics of your region have changed drastically in terms of who’s in power and what that person’s administration for your state’s government has set out for its goals in terms of environmental and green technology commitments of policy and money.
Consider the housing market in your region in terms of overall pricing and pricing trends in conjunction with what’s been done for homeowners in your region. For instance, if your state and local governments have reassessed property values downward because of the bad housing market in your region, it may not make sense to invest more in your home simply to incorporate green technology.
Governments at both the state and federal level in the US have a big hand in supporting and promoting green technology in the form of subsidies and other funding, so you’ll want to pay attention to politics before choosing to incorporate a specific green technology into your lifestyle. Use the criteria above to determine whether politics should change your mind about whether or not to incorporate a specific green technology into your lifestyle.