A plan to help homeowners go green and save green

Property owners in Los Angeles will find it easier and more affordable to “go green” with energy-efficient and water-saving equipment installations under a new program considered for adoption this week by the Board of Supervisors.

Thanks to AB 811, a state law enacted in 2008, local governments may establish programs that allow property owners to finance renewable energy and resource-efficiency retrofits through voluntary assessments on their property tax bills. Unlike similar previous efforts to spur renewable-energy investments, however, this innovative strategy removes two key barriers that hampered earlier programs.

By allowing property owners to take out energy-efficiency loans and pay them back over time, the program does away with property owners’ significant up-front personal investment. At the same time, it removes their back-end liability for costly improvements that have yet to pay off in energy savings because after a property is sold, the loan stays with the new buyer, not with the previous owner. Because the new owners will continue reaping the benefits of the energy efficient installations, they will fairly assume the existing loan obligation.

County officials estimate that during the program’s first two years, some 15,000 homes could be retrofitted, pumping $150 million into the local economy and creating as many as 2,600 green-related jobs. And the environment would benefit, too: all those energy-efficient and water-saving systems could help the state and County reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Posted 4/1/10