PACE Featured in EDF Blog

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Largest Texas City Embraces Private Clean Energy Finance Program in Record Year

Published: DECEMBER 16, 2015

By: Charlene Heydinger, Executive Director, Keeping PACE in Texas

htown skyline-720075_640 pixabayAs a bustling metropolis and the biggest city in Texas, Houston has a lot of buildings – and that equals a lot of opportunity to make these facilities more energy- and water-efficient.

Houston grabbed headlines last month when it became the first in Texas to adopt a citywide Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. PACE will help Houston building owners undertake much-needed water and energy efficiency improvements through private financing – all without having to worry about steep upfront costs. This move means substantial economic development potential, in addition to environmental benefits, for the nation’s fourth largest city.

It’s also a sign this innovative clean energy finance tool is catching fire in Texas: Houston joins Austin’s Travis County, which embraced PACE in March, and a Dallas city ordinance is just on the horizon. Additionally, Cameron and Willacy Counties expect to bring PACE to the Rio Grande Valley in January.

2015 marks a record year for the PACE finance approach across Texas, and interest is growing in several other counties. Even better, all are following the stakeholder-designed PACE in a Box model toolkit – meaning PACE is uniform, user-friendly, and market-based throughout the state.

PACE Mentioned on Houston Matters 12/9/15

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How Will Paris Climate Talks Affect Industry and the Environment in Houston? by Houston Matters | Free Listening on SoundCloud.

The world has been watching Paris in recent days as the city hosts the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, known as COP21. But, since we’re a show that focuses on Houston, we wondered how might climate change decisions made at the summit affect industry here?

We talk with several guests on this subject: First an eye-witness to the Paris summit, Rives Taylor, a principal architect with the Houston office of the architecture firm Gensler. Then we hear from our own energy and environment reporter Dave Fehling along with Kathleen Hartnett White, director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Paris Climate Talks Paris Climate Talks climate change COP21 news Houston Texas industry oil and gas energy economy jobs Dave Fehling News 88.7 Rives Taylor Gensler architecture sustainable design sustainability Kathleen Hartnett White Texas Public Policy Foundation

Save the Date: 2016 PACENation Summit

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When: Feb 29, 2016 – Mar 2, 2016
Where: Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, CO
Featuring: Inspiring speakers, workshops, and networking opportunities.

Are you interested to learn more about PACE financing? Do you want to meet with market leaders in person? The first annual PACENation Summit will offer you these opportunities and more! Places are limited, so register today: http://www.pacenation.us/pacenationsummit/

The Summit will bring together legislators, program administrators, financiers, contractors, building owners, government and non-government organizations to help grow PACENation in a way that benefits everyone. Participants will explore how to unleash growth in the PACE market, including: bringing PACE to more places, strengthening legislative policy, improving program design, reducing costs, and implementing best practices.

 

 

 

Houston Sets the PACE

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Today the Houston City Council adopted the first city PACE program in Texas – providing PACE economic development opportunity and environmental benefits to the nation’s fourth largest city and its entire extra-territorial jurisdiction.  After Mayor Annise Parker called for PACE earlier this year, Laura Spanjian, the Director of the City of Houston Office of Sustainability, launched a well run campaign to bring a PACE in a Box program to Houston.

Laura’s team of key city officials and stakeholders met bi-weekly with a tight schedule and clear goals.  It was a beautiful thing.  We’ve copied her model to create a “Starting a PACE Program Tasks and Timeline” outline of everything your community needs to start a PACE program in 14 weeks.  Laura’s PACE leadership started years before March 2012, when Laura spoke at our first PACE presentation at Thompson & Knight in Houston.  Then she labored with so many of us through the legislative process, the creation of PACE in a Box, and finally the establishment of Houston’s PACE program.

Those of you who have played roles large and small to create a strong, uniform, open-market program for all of Texas should take pride in helping to bring this Houston program to life.  Join me in congratulating Laura for her long standing effort to bring PACE home to Houston.  Be thinking of how to grow PACE projects in Houston and PACE programs for all of Texas.  Congratulations to all!

We did it, Laura; We did it!

CC Image courtesy of Kumar Appaiah on Flickr