TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to return to City Council on Tuesday, August 9, 2017 with a plan to promote, incentivize and encourage the use of the Energy Efficient Mortgage within the City of Long Beach. This plan should include but not be limited to:
• Education campaign to educate/inform homeowners, home
sellers and homebuyers about the importance of reducing
Green House Gas emission and the various finance programs
that can assist Long Beach in reaching our 2020, 2030 and
2050 goals;
• Identify resources to create collateral brochures and online
resources through existing city resources and programs; and
• Identify strategies other cities have utilized to support this
program.
DISCUSSION
The State of California is an international leader when it comes to Green House Gas (GHG) reduction. Over the past decade, the Legislature has continued to strengthen reduction goals through legislation such as AB 32 (Pavley) which created the cap and trade program, SB 1383 (Lara) which put a plan in place to reduce black carbon by 50%, Methane Gas by 40% and HFC Gas by 40% by 2030 and SB 350 (de Leon) which reduces California's GHG emission to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and reduces GHG to 80% below 1990 level by 2050 among other goals. Likewise, The City of Long Beach has long been a leader in the fight against GHG. In 2010, the City passed a Sustainable City Action Plan and just a few months ago the City Council started work on the Climate Action & Adaptation Plan.
One of the strategies the City of Long Beach should explore to help meet these statewide GHG reduction goals is the utilization of the Energy Efficient (EE) Mortgage by current and future Long Beach homeowners administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This mortgage is automatically available to residents who are approved for a mortgage or refinance loan and can add an additional 5-15% to the total amount of the mortgage to complete energy efficient repairs including HVAC systems, windows and insulation to name a few.
Potential Impact:
As we heard a few weeks ago in the presentation by Green Education, Inc., during 2016 there were approximately 54,000 homes sold in Los Angeles County and approximately 3,000 homes sold in the City of Long Beach. Through the utilization of this mortgage each home could see a reduction of 1:884 metric tons of C02e. If 20% of those new home owners utilized the EE Mortgage in LA County it would result in over 20,000 metric tons of C02e which is equivalent to removing 4,300 passenger cars off the road for a year.
Applied locally, if 20% of the 3,000 homes sold in Long Beach in 2016, it would result in over 1,000 metric tons of C02e which is equivalent to removing 240 passenger cars off the road for a year.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact for this report.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
LENA GONZALEZ
COUNCILWOMAN, FIRST DISTRICT
SUZIE PRICE
COUNCILWOMAN, THIRD DISTRICT
ROBERTO URANGA
COUNCILMEMBER, SEVENTH DISTRICT