The document discusses the establishment of revolving loan programs in North Carolina to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy projects for local governments, giving them the authority to fund such programs using federal grants and general revenues and setting loan conditions. It also describes how legislation was passed in 2008 and 2009 that expanded the ability of local governments to use contractual assessments to finance critical infrastructure projects, which came to include permanent energy improvements.

1. WWW.EFC.UNC.EDU One of 10 USEPA Designated Environmental Finance Centers Serves EPA region 4 Focus on local and state government finance and governance Teaching, advising and tools (models, guides, analyses)

3. http://www.bouldercounty.org/bocc/cslp/CSLPintro.html

4. Making it Legal in North Carolina Authority to loan money to private entities for purpose of energy efficiency and renewable energy Authority to use different types of revenue for loans Authority to borrow money for purpose of making loans Authority to assess improvement against a property and use assessment payments to retire debt

5. Public Purpose What’s obvious to a sustainability coordinator, may not be so obvious to others…..

6. Making it Legal in North Carolina SL 2009-522 (House Bill 1389) Asheville drafts a “local bill” modeled after bills in other states. Includes provisions for local government energy loans, finance districts, contractual assessments, debt financing Same bill is introduced statewide as HB 1389 “Financing Energy Improvements with Assessments” Debt financing provisions are removed Assessment provisions are removed HB 1389 approved

7. Session Law 2009-522 (House Bill 1389) Established argument for importance of promoting distributed energy improvements “within the state” Authority for local governments to establish revolving loan programs to support distributed energy efficiency and renewable energy Authority to fund programs using EECDBG funds and general unrestricted revenues Set loan conditions (interest rate, terms)

8. Meanwhile…….. 2008: Session Law 2008-165 (H 1770) creates new model for using assessments to fund “critical infrastructure” 2009: Senate bill 97 introduced to modify several aspects of S.L. 2008-165 August 2009: Permanent energy improvements added to list of infrastructure that can be financed through assessments August 2009: S97 approved

9. Authorized Loan Programs In NC

10. Authorized Loan Programs In NC (continued)

11. For More Information Jeff Hughes, Director Environmental Finance Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (919) 843-4956 jhughes@sog.unc.edu Kara Millonzi, Assistant Professor of Law and Government School of Government University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (919) 962-0051 millonzi@sog.unc.edu