David Gabrielson Executive Director, PACENation

SavePACE@PACENation.org

PO Box 195 Pleasantville, NY 10570

TALKINGPOINTSONBANKER-DRIVENBILLSAGAINSTPROPERTYASSESSEDCLEANENERGYBEINGINTRODUCEDTODAYINCONGRESS

• Supporters of Property Assessed Clean Energy financing agree that federal regulation would help responsibly scale an innovative policy that’s working to install renewable energy, energy efficiency, water conservation, and other measures to homes in California, Florida, and Missouri.

• The bills being introduced today (April 5) in the U.S. House and Senate are in no way supportive of that goal.

• The mortgage banking industry has made the destruction of PACE as a competitor a goal for two years. Their efforts to spread over-the-top rhetoric about PACE at the local, state, and now federal level are part of a pattern – and don’t reflect the work already done and which needs to be done to make PACE work.

• For starters, the Know-Before-You-Owe mortgage-level disclosures the bills call for are already law in California – where most of the residential PACE financing has taken place – because consumer advocates, PACE providers, the real estate industry, and clean energy advocates worked together. They’re also part of the industry-wide protections PACENation has adopted.

• These disclosures and the three-day waiting period in the California law (AB 2693) would be great federal legislation. Additional consumer protections are needed as well.

• But the bills go way beyond this and apply “residential mortgage” status to PACE assessments, meaning a home upgrade that averages less than $25,000 and is repaid over time as a line item on property taxes because of its benefit to the community would need to be delayed weeks by being equated to a home mortgage. A broken air conditioner will just be replaced with a cheap air conditioner that works – with the opportunity for energy efficiency lost.

• That would kill PACE. Which seems to be the intent.

• We are hopeful we can work with the sponsors on the House side to improve the legislation in a way that incorporates strong consumer protections – such as written disclosures and a three-day right of rescission – while also recognizing PACE as its own finance category, exempting it from inappropriate federal regulations because of its unique property-tax structure.

• Supporters of PACE should call out these bills and support meaningful efforts to add an additional consumer protection framework around PACE instead. Let’s come together around solutions that will make PACE stronger.