SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government, California and one of the nation’s largest foundations are teaming up to expand financing for energy efficiency and solar energy in multifamily housing.
Standing amid an array of solar panels on the sun-drenched roof of a 151-unit apartment building in the Tenderloin area on Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro described how they intend to tackle two of California’s top issues — affordable housing and energy — at the same time.
Brown remarked that it has only been a few decades since President Ronald Reagan ordered solar panels removed from the White House.
“This is a long slog into the future,” Brown said, in a slow progression toward ending the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and reducing the environmental threat of greenhouse gas emissions. “We are just at a very beginning stage here in California, and the rest of the country has a long way to go to catch up.”
Castro said it’s all about opportunities to create jobs, save money, save energy and give “our children and their children the opportunity to grow up in a healthy environment.”
“We have seen excellent progress in the last few years,” he said, citing President Obama’s State of the Union comment that the United States now brings as much new solar energy online every three weeks as it did in all of 2008. This progress “is good for the health and wealth of all Americans,” Castro said.
The Obama administration and California will cooperate to unlock Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for multifamily housing. Commercial PACE programs provide capital to speed up renewable energy and efficiency retrofits for energy and water in multifamily housing, making the existing supply more affordable to renters with low incomes and saving money for consumers and taxpayers.
Brown is creating a California Multifamily PACE pilot program in partnership with the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation, which funds a range of interests, including affordable housing. Castro is issuing new guidance to clear up the conditions under which HUD can approve PACE financing on HUD-assisted and HUD-insured housing in California. And the Energy Department is committing to work with California to assess the performance of California’s PACE program.
Also, HUD will support California’s creation of another pilot financing program for multifamily buildings in which most or all of the energy use is billed through a common meter.
Castro remarked Friday on the unseasonably sunny weather, which he said he misses as a native Texan living in Washington, D.C.
“This is good — Texas is coming to California. Your governor seems to think it’s going the other way,” Brown replied, making a jab at Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign to attract California companies to his state.
Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/Josh_Richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.
