The State has created a $10 million reserve fund to reimburse mortgage lenders. The fund would repay the lenders if people who finance clean energy projects through property tax payments default on their loans.
Evan Westrup with Governor Jerry Brown's office says the Federal Housing Finance Agency prohibited mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from accepting additional liens for homeowners who wished to finance PACE projects.
"The main concern of the Federal Government was around the financial liability and potential cost if these properties fell into foreclosure," says Westrup.
Jonathan Gemma is with Aztec Solar in Sacramento. He says solar companies have lost business because mortgage lenders wouldn't agree to additional liens to repay clean energy projects.
"Now if there is this reserve fund in place was able to ease concerns of that mortgage lender that there is some backing to this," he says, "they would allow the PACE financing to go and this opens up the opportunity to more people to be able to finance energy efficient equipment."
Besides solar panels, eligible equipment under the PACE program includes low-flow toilets, insulation, and energy-efficient light fixtures.
The mortgage loss reserve program will be run by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority.
July 23, 2018Two nights of aerial spraying to reduce the number of mosquitoes testing positive for West Nile virus are scheduled to begin Monday in parts of Elk Grove, the Pocket Neighborhood and neighborhoods south of Fruitridge Road.
.jpg "Tahoe Environmental Research Center boat captain Brant Allen lowers a Secchi disk from the research vessel into Lake Tahoe. The disk has been used for more than 50 years to measure water clarity at the lake.")
June 13, 2018If you spent time on the water at Lake Tahoe last year and thought it looked a lot cloudier, you're right. UC Davis researchers say extreme weather — drought followed by heavy rains — caused clarity in 2017 to drop to its lowest recorded level.
.jpg "A million fall run Chinook salmon smolts, who were raised at the Feather River Hatchery, are released from large tanks down a long pipe on a dock and out into the Sacramento River.")
May 3, 2018The fish took a ride in a large truck on Wednesday morning and are now headed down the river on a journey to the ocean.
March 8, 2018Using this new approach to calculate the snow’s water content also means improved forecasts for farms and cities, and even positive benefits for renewable-energy production. The program soon could go statewide — if it gets funded.
March 5, 2018(AP) — Monday's snow survey found a "much rosier" picture than before last week's heavy winter storm, but still less than half the usual snow for this point in the season.
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