Federal Agency Threatens Texas Clean Energy Progress

Environment Texas and Coalition Urges President Obama, Texas Congressional Delegation to Support Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Programs

AUSTIN– Environment Texas and a group of businesses, labor organizations, legislators delivered a letter to President Obama urging him to support legislation that guarantees local governments their rights to establish the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program that helps home and building owners finance energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.
“PACE is an excellent program with bipartisan support that enables property owners to affordably install energy retrofits to their homes, to significantly cut residential energy bills and fossil fuel consumption by reducing demand at its source,” said Joyce Yao, Clean Energy Associate for Environment Texas. “This is good for the health of our economy, our population and our planet.”
Texas was one of the 22 states to pass laws making it possible for local governments to develop PACE programs in 2009. Municipalities are authorized to establish contractual assessments, or loans, for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements to a property. State and local governments embraced PACE because of its tremendous potential to cut energy bills, increase homeowner cash flow for mortgage payments, reduce mortgage default risk, create tens of thousands of local jobs, and dramatically reduce pollution by spurring investment in clean energy improvements.  PACE programs were set to launch a 24-month pilot period this summer, funded by $150 million in grants from the Department of Energy, until the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) blocked PACE pilot programs in May 2010. The FHFA and OCC issued statements calling into question mortgages on properties utilizing PACE financing, despite strict guidelines that protect consumers and eliminate virtually all risk to mortgage lenders. 
 “The FHFA and OCC’s action is a direct challenge to state and local rights to levy tax assessments for a public purpose, and wrongly asserts that the consumer and lender protections were not sufficient,” said Yao. “They have pulled the rug out from under many local plans to implement smart, money-saving programs that would have generated green jobs.”
Several bills have been filed in Congress to rectify this issue: Representative Mike Thompson introduced H.R.5766, the Pace Assessment Protection Act of 2010, and Senator Barbara Boxer introduced identical legislation in the Senate that would reinstate PACE programs.
“It is critical that President Obama and members of the Texas Congressional delegation support federal legislation that will return Texas’s rights to implement the PACE program,” said Yao. “The sooner this happens, the faster we can resume our path to creating a cleaner, more efficient future.”
Joining Environment Texas in signing the letter included the Texas State Representatives Jessica Farrar (District 148) and Michael Villarreal (District 123), Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas Building and Construction Council, and the U.S. Green Building Council Texas Gulf Coast chapter, among others.