(a) The Legislature finds all of the following:
(1) Energy and water conservation efforts, including the promotion of energy efficiency improvements to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other real property are necessary to address the issue of global climate change.
(2) The upfront cost of making residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other real property more energy and water efficient prevents many property owners from making those improvements. To make those improvements more affordable and to promote the installation of those improvements, it is necessary to authorize an alternative procedure for authorizing assessments to finance the cost of energy and water efficiency improvements.
(b) The Legislature declares that a public purpose will be served by a voluntary contractual assessment program that provides the legislative body of any public agency with the authority to finance the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources and energy or water efficiency improvements that are permanently fixed to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other real property.
(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 444, Sec. 3. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2010.)