PRESS RELEASES

June 8, 2006 -- Mayor Bill White today outlined the progress of the City of Houston weatherization program improving 515 homes so far in the Pleasantville neighborhood to significantly reduce energy costs for residents. The project, in partnership with CenterPoint Energy and Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), announced 100 additional homes have enrolled for the program and expect to be evaluated and weatherized by the end of this month.

"Homeowners have seen real energy cost savings in their monthly bills, which allows them more money for life's necessities," said Mayor Bill White. "I want to thank CenterPoint Energy for their hard work at no cost to taxpayers."

The pilot for this program began in the Pleasantville community where a total of 1,470 homes were built since the 1950s. It is designed to reduce the energy consumption of the entire Houston neighborhood through several improvements to homes, including installing weather stripping on windows and doors, caulking windows, and installing additional insulation in the attic and on exposed hot water piping.

"We're pleased to be working with the City of Houston on this project," said Georgianna Nichols, president of CenterPoint Energy's electric operations. "We encourage all Houstonians to take an active role in making their homes more energy efficient."

Customers can also find energy efficiency information at www.CenterPointEfficiency.com.

HARC will lead in tabulating the results in energy consumption savings after the program's completion, working closely with the City of Houston and CenterPoint. "We expect that the data collected through this program will demonstrate that weatherization is one of the best choices to improve the energy efficiency of these homes," said Dr. Richard Haut, Senior Research Scientist for HARC.

For more information about HARC visit www.harc.edu. HARC Contact: Terri Kurtin, 281.363.7926, tkurtin@harc.edu.