Efficiency Advocates Mobilize to Defend PACE Financing

Cathy Zoi, the DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, wrote to Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – to ask for clarification of the cryptic advisories sent out on May 5.

SEE ENERGY FIRST Posting describing the latest status of PACE discussions where it matters, at the top.

Constitutionality of PACE White Paper

PHJW PACE White Paper 5.28.10 (Final)

PACE Financing for Commercial Buildings to Reach $2.5 Billion Annually by 2015, According to Pike Research

In the commercial building sector, energy efficiency retrofits are a highly effective approach for reducing energy consumption and costs while also mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the energy retrofit market in privately owned buildings is limited by capital constraints, short planning horizons for property owners, and split incentives between owners and tenants. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is emerging as an important tool to overcome these barriers in the market for commercial building retrofits. PACE programs create voluntary tax liens on private property, to secure financing for retrofits. The liens are paid off over 5 to 20 years, usually on the property tax bills. SEE MORE

Popular PACE Program Under Siege by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Within just a few years, some 23 states and the federal government have passed legislation removing any legal barriers to adopting the program, and hundreds of cities and counties have or are developing their own Property Assessed Clean Energy versions.

Yet now in a somewhat odd twist, about half the mortgages in the country may be ineligible for PACE financing. The quasi-public mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which received a lot of unwanted attention and much-wanted aide during the fall of the housing market, have reportedly sent out “lender guidance letters” suggesting that homes financing through them are not allowed to participate in PACE financing. SEE ARTICLE

Missouri Adopts PACE

Missouri became the 21st state to open the door to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. The innovative and wildly popular financing scheme, which allows homeowners to pay for solar power systems via municipal loans paid back through property taxes, has been spreading fast through states eager to ride the growing green energy wave. SEE STORY

Editorial: Feds put damper on retrofit loans

The Sacramento Bee expresses frustration on its opinion page by saying "Here's a prime example of what can be so infuriating about the federal bureaucracy.

Hundreds of California property owners have taken advantage of special loans to make their homes and businesses greener. Thousands more are to become eligible this year.

But the program -- which lets owners repay the loans later as part of property tax bills -- is now in limbo.

Last month, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued warning letters to lenders that such energy loans could put homeowners in default of their mortgages.

Those would be the same out-of-control mortgage giants that needed a gargantuan taxpayer bailout of $145 billion and counting to survive the housing meltdown.

And their stance comes despite the White House strongly encouraging such programs, through policy and hundreds of millions in stimulus funding."

FannieMae Lender Letter 050510

Local governments serve as idea labs for federal lawmakers, creating a 'safe' space as politicians consider changes to national climate and energy reform.

THE INCUBATORS

Call them the Silicon Valley garages of climate policy.

Local efforts to trim emissions, change economies and alter behavior are serving as idea labs where mistakes can be made and novel approaches honed in preparation for setting national climate and energy policy.

Midwest Energy and Climate Policy Conference

Program description

The fourth annual "Midwest Energy and Climate Policy Conference," June 8-10, 2010, will be hosted at the world famous Missouri Botanical Garden and Union Station's Marriott Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. This event will bring in experts from across the region and country to discuss federal and state energy priorities, proposed legislative and regulatory actions, emerging national security issues, corporate response to carbon management, the future of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power, private sustainability initiatives, the prospect and analysis of new "green" projects and jobs, and the outlook for alternative energy research and initiatives.

Fannie and Freddie Resist Loans for Energy Efficiency

Wall Street Journal article

The government's mortgage-finance agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are resisting a White House-backed effort to make it easier for homeowners to get loans to make their houses more energy efficient.

The problem: deciding who gets paid first if the borrower defaults.

St. Louis Post --PACE article

PACE yourself for savings on Missouri utility bills.

Even the most fervent Tea Partier would have a hard time hating a bill that the Missouri Legislature recently passed with near unanimous votes — even though it enables new local tax assessments.

If signed into law, it would bring to Missouri what's called "property assessed clean energy" — or PACE. Homeowners and businesses can achieve huge savings in utility bills if they make their homes more energy efficient. They could get the savings now and pay for the improvements over 20 years with special tax assessments.

Missouri Becomes 21st PACE State

California Clean Energy groups watch Missouri's progress with great interest. A blog entry describes how PACE got its start in Ferguson, MO.

Policy Framework for PACE Financing Programs

Policy Framework has been developed by the White House and the relevant agencies as a policy framework for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs. The Vice President announces support for the use of federal funds for pilot programs of PACE financing to overcome barriers for families who wish to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.

WEB LINK TO PDF

The PACE Initiative begins at the federal level

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN ANNOUNCES THAT PACE RETROFIT FINANCE WILL BE KEY COMPONENT OF OUR NATION’S “RECOVERY THROUGH RETROFIT PROGRAM”
The Department of Energy to Provide Stimulus Funds
for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Pilot Programs