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  • Long Island town threatens to sue Fannie & Freddie over clean-energy program

    Here’s the latest in the dispute with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a finance tool that helps homeowners cut energy waste: Babylon, N.Y., Supervisor Steve Bellone tells Fannie and Freddie to stop hating on his town’s clean-energy program at a rally with local building workers and homeowners.Courtesy Town of […]

  • Energy efficiency helps homeowners avoid foreclosure

    Energy-efficient homes have significantly lower default and delinquency rates than typical homes, according to an internal analysis conducted for a major financial institution last year. Here’s yet another reason why it makes no sense that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have effectively killed Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a financing tool that has helped make […]

  • Fannie and Freddie to clean-energy program: Drop dead

    Grist has been covering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s attack on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a promising tool that helps homeowners finance green improvements to their properties. Here’s the latest: On Tuesday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ended their radio silence nine weeks after sending cryptic letters warning lenders against permitting the use of […]

  • Fannie and Freddie won’t let this teacher green her home

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have shut down most of the nation’s programs using Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), an innovative tool that helps Americans finance green improvements to their homes. Here’s a homeowner’s perspective on the story: Thomason and her Boulder County home. Kayla Thomason spent last winter wondering if the furnace would hold […]

  • Exclusive: Obama admin unable to resolve shutdown of PACE clean-energy program

    Obama administration officials have failed to resolve a dispute with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that has shut down Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), according to an email obtained by Grist. The impasse will likely kill the promising clean-energy financing tool until Congress passes legislation addressing it, according to Cisco DeVries, who first created the […]

  • Fannie and Freddie bring down Boulder clean-energy finance program

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac claimed the first casualty in their attack on a promising clean-energy financing tool when Boulder County, Colo., canceled the latest round of its popular ClimateSmart Loan Program on Tuesday. “We are extremely disappointed by the lack of flexibility and vision we’ve encountered with the FHFA [Federal Housing Finance Agency], and […]

  • Greening homes requires credit, which Fannie and Freddie should understand

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have essentially shut down an innovative program that helps Americans green their homes.  Here’s more on the story: Jeanine Cotter, CEO of California solar installation company Luminalt, has a good explanation of what keeps homeowners from investing in rooftop solar and retrofits that cut energy waste. In her experience, people […]

  • Britain’s Green Deal to unlock billions for home energy efficiency

    Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne.Photo courtesy Liberal Democrats via FlickrIn the wake of the new budget released in the U.K. on Tuesday, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has been putting some flesh on the bones of the promised Green Deal for households. Huhne is a Liberal Democrat, so his remarks at […]

  • Can voluntary action fix Britain’s shoddy housing stock?

    Britain’s housing stock: charming but leakyPhoto courtesy UGArdener via FlickrPrime Minister David Cameron’s call for Brits to take up the challenge of government by joining what he calls the “Big Society” exists so far largely in the realm of rhetorical flourishes. The political appeal is obvious: Maybe we can get communities to do stuff — […]