Imagination Coast News Service: July 19, 2010
Congress seeks to protect local clean-energy programs, legislation introduced
San Jose Mercury News
7/16/2010
The state's congressional Democrats launched a full-court press this week to save a nationwide home-energy financing program that federal regulators have snubbed.
Thirty House members, mostly from California and including Santa Cruz County Reps. Sam Farr and Anna Eshoo, are backing legislation that would force the Federal Housing Finance Agency to participate in Property Assessed Clean Energy programs or PACE, where homeowners finance energy upgrades through their property taxes.
Last week the federal agency called the program risky and directed its mortgage partners Fannie May and Freddie Mac to not do business with homeowners in PACE. Since Fannie May and Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half the nation's mortgages, the directive has dimmed prospects for PACE.