This is the day for children of all ages to dress up and go trick or treating. Many will don costumes that are intended to be scary. They will look like a skeleton, Count Dracula or a zombie, for example. But what really scares me is the thought of how much energy our homes are wasting every day. As I reported in an earlier post, an estimated 60 million existing homes today are under insulated. Of that total, about 40 million are single-family homes. Millions of their owners' hard-earned dollars are going right through the roof each winter.

Another scary thought is the amount of carbon being emitted by energy inefficient homes and commercial buildings. Buildings today consume 40 percent of the total energy use. That's more than both transportation and industrial activity. If every one of those under-insulated homes mentioned above would simply upgrade their attics from R-19 to the U.S. Department of Energy-recommended level of R-49 for many areas, we could reduce CO2 emissions by about 41 million tons, and reduce energy use equivalent to 51 fewer supertanker shipments of oil per year*.

A recent study published in The McKinsey Quarterly reached a significant conclusion - the single most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gases is building insulation. For information about how to save money and help the planet by upgrading the insulation in your home, go to the Owens Corning micro-site, www.insulateyouratticnow.com.

* With an estimated 60 million under-insulated homes in 2006 (based upon a 2003 Harvard School of Public Health study, The public health benefits of insulation retrofits in existing housing in the United States), 51 supertanker shipments saved annually is equal to a total of 103 million barrels; if all under-insulated U.S. homes were insulated to DOE standards, the U.S. would save the amount of energy equivalent to the energy in this amount of oil. The CO2 emissions reduction is an estimate based on the same data.