ICLEI USA Congratulates Sonoma County, CA for Its Commitment to Energy Efficiency & Supports Its Legal Action Against FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Restore PACE Programs

Contact: Guillermo Meneses, ICLEI USA
(202) 445-1570 (cell)

Washington, D.C. [July 27, 2010] – ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA today issued the following statement from its Executive Director, Martin J. Chavez, in support of Sonoma County’s legal action against the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“We congratulate the County of Sonoma, CA, along with its Board of Supervisors and ICLEI USA Board member Valerie Brown, for their leadership and continued commitment to innovative energy efficiency programs that benefit the community and the environment.

"The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) recent actions to halt Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, like Sonoma County's Energy Independence Program, are a classic case of an agency with blinders on that is concerned solely with its narrow purview.  FHFA’s illegitimate concern regarding PACE should not be cause to sacrifice our national imperative to wean ourselves off of foreign oil, create non-exportable local jobs and do our part to clean up our natural environment.

"As we have noted, FHFA’s actions signal an unprecedented overreach of federal authority to what customarily is a matter of local jurisdiction. Local assessment tools such as PACE-enabling programs provide communities with a measure of energy independence, while spurring energy savings and much-needed job creation during a time of economic instability and environmental insecurity in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We will never become a fully sustainable nation or energy independent unless Congress and the White House exercise their leadership and bring some common sense to FHFA’s Acting Director, Edward DeMarco. PACE is a self-empowering, self-executing program that works and does not incur any cost to the Federal Government.

"Additionally, ICLEI USA wants to reiterate its absolute opposition to any PACE Pilot program that would derail and delay full funding and restoration of current and future PACE programs.  To my knowledge, not one single mortgage failure has occurred as a result of a homeowners’ participation in a local PACE program.

"This is the not the time to let up, it is the time to press on and we should not allow our legislators to go on their summer recess without ensuring that homeowners are once again able to fully access PACE programs.”