To the Editor:

Last week I had the honor of representing our Village at the annual meeting for the Energy Improvement Corporation. The Energy Improvement Corporation (EIC) is a Local Development corporation, which is an NYS not-for-profit, established specifically to support energy efficiency and renewable energy building upgrades.

EIC offers the Energize NY Finance Program which is New York State’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) finance program. PACE programs are a recent innovation in finance and have emerged nationwide over the past year during which time 15 states have passed enabling legislation. The Village has been an Energize PACE partner since 2013.

PACE financing is made available to eligible property owners in order to provide attractive financing for property improvements that lower energy consumption. PACE programs eliminate the upfront cost for energy improvements by allowing property owners to pay for the improvements over 5-20 years through an increase in their annual property taxes. Under PACE financing, the annual energy savings offset the annual PACE financing payment.

One of the latest PACE projects sponsored by Energize was a 56 kilowatt solar power system for Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, which will offset almost all of the congregation’s energy consumption.

Another recent project was St. Christopher’s Parish in Buchanan, which with a 20-year PACE loan that covered 100% of roof repair and solar installation. The Church is saving $3500 annually and achieving its goal of answering the Pope’s call to protect the environment

In addition to reviewing recent Energize projects, the meeting elected new members to the Board of Directors. This included our own Cortlandt Town Supervisor, Linda Puglisi, who was nominated due to the large number of Energize projects in the Town of Cortlandt.

As we enter our fourth year in partnership with the Energy Improvement Corporation, I look forward to creating further progress to conserve energy and generate renewable energy locally by supporting homeowners and businesses interested in making economically and environmentally sound decisions.

Sincerely,

Brian Pugh