"Not only can energy efficient improvements help protect you against rising energy prices, but they can also add real value to your property," Barker said in a statement.
Most consumers said that their energy bills would need to rise 70percentt before they would "feel forced" to make energy efficient improvements to their homes.
You will also need to establish whether your intended improvements qualify for acceptable energy efficient improvements.
Firstly you have to be a property owner, tenant, architect or an engineer who intends to carry out energy efficient improvements to a property or has already done so.
"If someone is thinking about making an energy-efficient improvement, this is a time to do it," said Amy McAnarney, executive director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block in Kansas City, Mo.
Nearly 60percentt of the money would be used for energy-efficient improvements, such as railway work, the governor said in a statement released Sunday.
The city was running a new programme called City Lights, funded by a $2m grant from the 2009 stimulus, designed to make energy-efficient improvements to small businesses.
The bill would authorize $2.4 billion in bonds to help finance state and local energy conservation programs to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases, and would extend tax credits for making energy-efficient improvements to existing homes.
"The program targets the lower-income population because it is focusing on those who are not able to make energy-efficient improvements to their home that would lower their electric bill," Mr. Zaweski said.
However, Mervyn Kohler, of the charity Age UK, said the money available to help vulnerable people was nowhere near enough: "There needs to be a more coherent programme with proper energy-efficient improvements in people's homes.
