market based energy and water conservation legislation introduced in Texas

This week, legislation was introduced to the Texas Senate to enable financing of water and energy conservation improvements for building owners using property assessments. Programs of this sort are in place in many other states, and are called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. Essentially, this allows cities to offer building owners a long-term loan that can be paid back each year on the property tax bill. The cost of improvements are added to the property tax bill over the course of several years. Depending on the improvement project, the savings will be reflected in monthly water and energy bills. According to the PR Newswire, this funding mechanism will enable building owners to put improvements in place that would otherwise be cost prohibitive without the low-cost, long-term loans and repayment method this program puts in place. The program is voluntary, and each loan is attached to the property, not the property owner. Similar legislation is expected to be submitted to the Texas Congress soon.

For more information about PACE financing of conservation improvements, watch this video: