The LA Times has done a well-researched piece on the work of PACE providers and government entities to strengthen one of the most successful policy ideas to deploy energy efficiency and renewable energy into American homes — strengthening our clean energy economy and residential infrastructure – and to expand access to credit for homeowners to make home improvements. To date, over $3.7 billion in PACE financing has helped more than 150,000 homeowners make improvements to their homes, many of whom would not have been able to do so without the option of PACE financing. This reporting comes at a time when the federal government is moving responsibility for infrastructure modernization to the private sector, and when states and cities are looking for effective options to advance clean energy.
The reporting captures broad support for PACE, as well as why the industry is working at the company, state, and federal policy levels to safeguard homeowners from misrepresentation, and to actually remove bad actors with poor consumer protection records from the PACE marketplace. The underlying allegations in the homeowner stories highlighted have solutions in the companies’ practices as well as pending California legislation (SB 242, carried by Sen. Nancy Skinner). A spokesperson for Governor Jerry Brown is quoted saying “The Governor continues to support PACE as a way for Californians to play their part in responding to a rapidly changing climate,” adding that he’s “open to additional opportunities to continue improving the program.” Even the sponsor of a bill currently opposed by PACENation in the U.S House of Representatives, Rep. Brad Sherman, says in the story he’s “certainly not hostile to the PACE program,” and that “it does an awful lot of good.”
PACENation and its members will continue to look for policy, regulatory, and business solutions that strengthen an effective and popular financing option for homeowners and tool for state and local governments to impact their local economies and energy futures.