California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom to Deliver Keynote Address at the ACI National Home Performance Conference

Online, March 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Affordable Comfort, Inc. (ACI), the nation's leading educational resource for home performance and weatherization, is pleased to announce California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom will deliver the keynote address of the National Home Performance Conference in San Francisco, CA, on March 30.

"We are thrilled to have Lieutenant Governor Newsom kick off our 25th anniversary conference, not least because his passion for the environment, economic development and housing are so closely aligned with our mission to ensure that every family has a home that is energy efficient, durable, comfortable, healthy, and safe, and every community has access to and values skilled home performance services and professionals.," says Amy Fazio, Executive Director of ACI. "It is an honor to be able to bring his vision and leadership to our stakeholders."

Newsom was elected as the 49th Lieutenant Governor of the State of California on November 2, 2010. His top priorities are economic development and job creation, improving access to higher education, and maintaining California's environmental leadership. Serving as mayor of San Francisco for seven years starting in 2003, Newsom was responsible for turning the city into a national hub for the biotech and clean tech industries, launched successful initiatives to reduce homelessness and aggressively pursued local solutions to climate change-all while balancing seven consecutive budgets.

The ACI National Home Performance Conference will focus on improving the energy efficiency, durability, comfort, health and safety of homes and will celebrate ACI's 25 years at the center of home performance and weatherization. With 144 core conference sessions for contractors, builders, energy auditors, remodelers, designers and weatherization professionals, the event will connect individuals looking to start or advance their careers in the home performance and weatherization industry with leading trainers and subject-matter experts from across the country.

Special events at the 2011 National Home Performance Conference include the Score This Job competition in which energy auditors will compete to create the best energy remodel solution for a real local San Francisco home, a pre-conference hands-on special session on diagnosing performance problems in big buildings, and the 25 Years - 25 Stories retrospective highlighting industry pioneers.

In addition to the core conference, the ACI Home Energy Summit, March 28-29 and also in San Francisco, is a high-level gathering of industry thought leaders that will examine ways to bring the nation closer to economic and energy security through public private partnership focused on improving the energy efficiency of America's 129 million existing homes.

The residential sector uses 22% of all energy consumed in the United States each year, while transportation consumes 29% and industry 30%. An average American family with an after-tax income of $53,904 spent 10% of that income on energy in 2010, up from 5% in 2011 and 7% in 2005, increasing the impact of the economic crisis. In addition, unemployment rates in the construction industry remain the highest among all industries at 21.8% in February 2011. Construction employment grew by 33,000 in February, with specialty trade contractors accounting for the bulk of the February job gain (+28,000), according to numbers released March 4, 2011 by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Members of the media are encouraged to attend. To request credentials for the event, please contact Stephanie Inglis at [email protected].

For more information on the ACI National Home Performance Conference 2011 and find updates to the conference agenda, visit http://acinational.org/