C-PACER “Fixer” Bill Signed

Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee signed a small but important bill yesterday, March 17th. SB5862 is known as a “fixer bill,” designed to correct or clarify points of previously passed legislation that were not working as intended. In this case, it relates to C-PACER financing, a powerful tool to help building owners finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resilience projects. Two years ago, the state of Washington passed the legislation enabling such financing, but in the time since only five counties have opted into the program, all of which are along the I-5 corridor. Others, like Spokane County, felt like the vagueness in certain parts of the bill opened the county to risk. This fixer bill clarifies those points, assuring counties that this is a low-risk, high-return opportunity to boost economic activity while benefiting the environment.

C-PACER is seen as a key tool for commercial buildings to comply with the state’s Clean Buildings Act, a mandatory benchmarking and efficiency law. Spokane’s commercial property community is excited for Spokane County’s Commissioners to sign an ordinance making C-PACER available to Spokane’s building owners.

“Access to C-PACER financing is the only way that many property owners can justify the deep energy retrofits required by the Clean Buildings Act. Some prominent downtown Spokane buildings are staring down multi-million-dollar retrofits with paybacks measured in decades. Making such investments would be hard to justify with other forms of financing, and C-PACER may be the key to keeping our historic buildings viable.” Says Erik Makinson, Founder and President of Resource Synergy.

“C-PACER is a crucial mechanism to effectively move our state towards reducing the carbon intensity of our built environment in the face of the ongoing climate crisis,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senator Liz Lovelett. “By making it easier for local jurisdictions to utilize and for our private financial partners to participate, we can attract deep investments in communities across Washington.”