President Barack Obama will back new tax incentives and government financing to make buildings more energy efficient as a way to cut energy costs and encourage job growth, Bloomberg reported.  

Obama wants Congress to revamp an existing tax deduction for commercial building upgrades to create a credit that would make it more attractive for owners and real estate investment trusts to “retrofit” properties, according to a White House fact sheet. The plan also calls for the U.S. Small Business Administration to work with lenders to take advantage of higher loan limits to promote energy-efficiency upgrades by businesses.

The administration says building and business owners would save a total of about $40 billion a year by making their structures more efficient.

Later today at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa., Obama will visit labs working on technology to make buildings more energy efficient, and he plans to talk about how that work will help ensure U.S. economic competitiveness. The trip is part of the president’s effort to promote the themes and agenda he laid out in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25.

In Pennsylvania today, Obama will call for commercial buildings in the United States to become 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020. The administration didn’t disclose the cost of the tax incentive in a fact sheet it distributed ahead of Obama’s event. Details of the proposals will be included in the administration’s budget, which will be released on Feb. 14.