PACE Financing Bill Before State Senate

A bipartisan bill that would provide a financing option for homeowners looking to make energy-saving upgrades to their homes was recently filed in the state Senate.

The PACE Arkansas Initiative, introduced Feb. 28 by state Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, as Senate Bill 640, has been referred to the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

Legislation enabling residential Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, programs already has been adopted by 27 states. Its supporters hope Arkansas will join that list this year.

PACE operates at the local government level, allowing property owners to finance energy efficiency and related improvements with funds from the sale of low-interest bonds, according to the website pacenow.org. Homeowners repay the financing through their property taxes, which stay with the property if it’s sold.

A PACE bill narrowly missed passage by the Arkansas Legislature in 2011.

Two other energy-related bills are currently under consideration by state lawmakers.

House Bill 1390, called the Arkansas Distributed Generation Act, remains in the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Energy. The bill filed Feb. 18 by state Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, asks the Public Service Commission to begin studying how utility companies could buy power from small producers.

And Senate Bill 340, filed by Johnson on Feb. 14 and known as the Guaranteed Energy Cost Savings Act, received Senate approval March 11. It is now before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

SB 340 will provide a means to pay for energy-saving improvements for the more than 2,500 buildings owned by the state.