The White House was aware that U.S. Secretary of Energy
Steven Chu would call for flat-topped roofs
(both current and new construction) to be painted with white
reflective paint. Chu made the remarks on Tuesday at a conference
of Nobel laureates in London. “[Chu’s] press people said there
wouldn’t be much press coverage,” says a White House aide
familiar with the vetting of Chu’s trip.
Chu claimed that a government plan to mandate white reflective
roofs would achieve the environmental equivalent of pulling all
of the world’s cars off the road for eleven years.
Chu indicated that government regulations would most likely have
to require construction firms and developers to paint the flat
roofs of building white, and slanted roofs colors that would
reflect heat and energy.
A Democratic staffer working on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee says that such a policy could be tied to federal
housing financing through HUD aid or via tax credits to encourage
homeowners to renovate their homes’ roofs with new materials that
reflected heat, and the proposal could be included in the
upcoming global warming legislation.
