Charlottesville's Clean Energy Financing Bill Makes the New York Times (Well, Sorta)

On Saturday, the New York Times ran an article (see here) highlighting the benefits of, and the growing interest in, municipal-level financing programs for clean energy improvements. I was pleased that they noted, in an aside, that Virginia has now joined a half-dozen other states in pursuing authorizing legislation for such programs -- which, of course, came about thanks to Charlottesville's own SB1212.

One point of interest: the Times article quotes some skeptics as saying it would be smarter for local governments to use their funds to finance energy-efficiency measures (like replacing windows or insulating attics) before making loans for solar panels. I'm pleased to note that SB1212 is actually a step ahead of some of the initiatives profiled in the article in addressing this very concern. Our bill, which will hopefully be signed into law by the Governor any day now, is broader in scope by allowing for the loans to be used for energy efficiency purposes as well as renewable energy generation, thus giving Virginia localities the flexibility to decide how they wish to use their funds. It's one of the recommendations that our Citizens Committee on Environmental Sustainability made in helping us to craft the proposal, and it made eminent sense.