Municipal regulations across California’s cities
A new study by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate clearly states that transitioning to a clean economy - with all the accompanying climate, security and health benefits - will be cheaper than continuing to invest in the fossil fuel economy. By modernizing regulations and cutting red tape, local, state, and federal governments can stimulate the clean economy at little to no cost.
In California, we’ve started doing just that.
Solar companies have to hopscotch a byzantine web of municipal regulations across California’s cities to install solar on a homeowner’s roofs. This bureaucracy adds an extra $700 to $1,100 to the cost of a residential solar system and, in some jurisdictions, over three months of waiting time. This year, the solar industry joined with Assembly member Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Governor Jerry Brown to pass a bill that will significantly reduce that regulatory burden. By standardizing the solar permitting process statewide, this law has cut red tape at no state expense and enabled Californians to more quickly and easily start saving money and generating their own clean power.
In the Inland Empire, where air conditioners blast nearly year-round, the high cost of credit once prevented people from improving their homes in ways that would dramatically lower their energy bills. In recent years, local governments have enabled homeowners to make these improvements using an innovative program called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). Through PACE, a homeowner can finance efficient roofing, windows, air conditioners, and other technologies with private low-interest loans repaid through an additional charge on their property taxes. In California, PACE has financed over $300 million in improvements, created over 2,350 jobs, and reduced carbon emissions by half a million tons. While these programs are enabled by local governments, they cost the taxpayers nothing.