© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
In light of this year’s legislative session, Thompson & Knight has organized a statewide effort to help pass a bill that would aid the ability of Texas property owners to improve their water conservation and energy efficiency.
The effort, called “Keeping PACE in Texas,” is a non-profit association geared toward gaining awareness and business sponsorships for the Property Assessed Clean Energy program – a private sector loan program that essentially uses property assessments as a payment method for building owners to upgrade their property’s facilities to conserve more energy and water.
If the legislation passes in May, it would update a PACE statute from 2009 and fully authorize municipalities and counties to use property assessments as a conservation and economic development tool.
According to Steve Block, a TK real estate partner and the president of Keeping PACE in Texas, the proposal is a “win-win” situation because it allows properties to become more energy efficient and less costly to operate without the risk of them going into foreclosure. He said the idea is that the amount of money that properties save on utility bills by becoming more energy efficient will exceed the amount the loaning sector subsidizes for the assessment of the projects.
“There’s no downside; it’s all upside,” Block said. “It doesn’t require any out-of-pocket expenditures.”
Thompson & Knight decided to create “Keeping PACE in Texas” after Block and fellow TK partner Jim Morriss returned from a national PACE financing conference held in Arizona a year and a half ago. Block and Morriss agreed that PACE legislation, which has been effectively adopted in 27 other states, needed to be readdressed in Texas.
They approached TK’s management committee when they returned to Texas with a proposal and “Keeping PACE in Texas” officially formed in January 2012.
Block said that the first step of the organization was to gain support from the business community. To accomplish this, TK started hosting events pro bono to educate numerous companies, trade associations and other organizations about the benefits that can result from PACE programs.
“We have reached several hundred supporters through seminars we’ve sponsored and programs we’ve gone to and made presentations at,” Block said. “It’s in the hundreds if not more [of individuals] that have been at least enlightened through the program of the efforts we have undertaken.”
The firm also organized a website for the association, and through the help of the TK marketing department, spread the word about PACE via various press releases.
Through the work of Charlene Heydinger, the executive director of “Keeping PACE in Texas,” the association has also gained support of the legislation on the lawmaking side. Senator John Carona of Dallas is sponsoring SB 385, while Rep. James Keffer of Granbury and chairman of the Texas House Energy Resources Committee is sponsoring HB 1094.
Heydinger, who devotes almost all of her time to the organization, has endless praise for TK’s support of the PACE efforts.
“They’ve bent over backwards to help,” said Heydinger, an Austin-based legislative and public policy attorney who is a former Washington lobbyist. “Any time I need legal support, they are right there.”
For more information about the PACE program, SB 385 and HB 1094, please visit www.keepingpaceintexas.org.
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