Residential Energy Rebate Efficiency Program
September 28, 2011
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 As a result of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Montgomery County received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop programs to increase the energy efficiency of buildings. As a part of the grant $1.1 million dollars is now available for residential energy efficiency rebates. To date only $150,000 of those monies has been committed.
The Montgomery County Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program offers incentives to homeowners up to $3,000 to offset the cost of certain energy efficiency projects and products. Rebates are available on a first come, first served basis to individuals in single family homes, town homes and condominiums. Up to $3,000 per participant is available, on a one time basis, for energy-efficiency improvements. The minimum rebate amount that a participant can apply for is $500.
In order to apply for a Montgomery County rebate, an applicant must get an energy audit (or quick check for condominiums), a scope of work from a contractor for the improvements they plan to install, and complete an on-line application.
To get more information and to access an application, click here.
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| HELP Needs Help August 10, 2010 |
 At our last Council session, the full Council approved the regulations that were necessary to implement the Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) that I sponsored and our Council unanimously passed.
This program, based on similar programs that were started by local governments in California and other places in the Untied States, provides low-interest funds, up to $25,000, to eligible homeowners to retrofit your homes with cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. This program should allow you to reduce your utility bills and your greenhouse gas emissions by up to 33%, increase the value of your home, and create good, "green" jobs in Montgomery County. This is a win-win-win situation, which is why the legislation was supported by an unusual alliance of realtors, home construction companies, and the Sierra Club.
The cost of the measures installed is recovered through an annual property tax assessment. Spread out over 15 years, this property tax assessment, like other assessments used to recover the costs of sewers and other improvements, "runs with" the property, not the individual homeowner who makes the investment. It is this last aspect of the program that is critical to its success. If you as a homeowner were obligated to pay off the entire amount owed, you might naturally only make an investment that would pay for itself while you owned it. But if you can make an investment that is paid for by the next homeowner who will enjoy the benefits as well, all with proper notice of course, you will invest as much as is found to be cost-effective over the 15 year time horizon.
While Montgomery County is the only county in the Washington region to have adopted this program to date, 200 jurisdictions throughout the country are now in various stages of implementing programs like this. At least they were until .....
On July 6, the Federal Housing Financing Authority, the federal regulators who control $5.6 trillion (yes trillion) in mortgages provided by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, issued a statement in which it concluded that this use of property tax assessments by local governments was too radical for its tastes. They ruled that our program would violate a homeowner's mortgage unless consent was given, and that, among other things, any jurisdiction that implemented such a program would face higher costs of providing mortgages.
Needless to say, our county is not going to put you or any homeowner in such a position, so we have put our program on pause until this gets worked out. The State of California has sued FHFA, as have several local jurisdictions and the Sierra Club, arguing in part that FHFA has no basis to overturn a local government's determination of what is a proper property tax assessment. I have been working with a coalition of local governments across the country that are trying to find a way forward with FHFA, or failing that, asking Congress to intervene. I have written our excellent congressional delegation asking them to overturn FHFA's decision if FHFA can not be persuaded to do so voluntarily. I am going to do everything I can to fight for this program. |
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