We are not ones for pessimism, so we’ll call this the character-building period of the PACE campaign. The California Energy Commission has just announced that they are putting their PACE program on hold. (Read more here). We have scant time before the August congressional recess. This means time is short to get an immediate legislative fix to the PACE crisis. The take away? Keep those action letters coming, they are more important than ever.
All along this battle has been about mortgage lenders, who we think were asleep at the wheel during the mortgage crisis, now compensating by being overly zealous on PACE. The CQ Political Economy blog has a good, character-building, take on PACE and the dynamic of those politics: here.
However, the fact remains, PACE is not very likely to become the next sub-prime mortgage crises. (A quick aside: most economists agree that the next economic shoe to drop will not likely be mortgage related. Crises amount from situations that are not expected. People expect a mortgage crisis. But that is for another blog on another day). In fact, PACE already has a track record of being incredibly secure. See Greentech Media article on the subject here.
In the key state of Florida, local PACE champion Rep Adam Hasner (R- Del Ray Beach) has been offering strong words of public support. See articles he penned in both the St. Petersburg Times and the South-Florida Sun Sentinel.
More resources: Our friends at Apollo Alliance have a great blog on which they are tracking PACE news as well.
Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.
