FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2020
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House Committee Turns to New National Climate Bank Nonprofit to Solve Climate Crisis, Create Jobs
Follows nearly 100 groups backing proposal
New initiative would create 5M jobs, with 20% of funds going to low income, minority communities
WASHINGTON —The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has included a National Climate Bank nonprofit in its action plan on how to solve the climate crisis while putting millions back to work. The new policy proposal was also included in the House’s CLEAN Future Act.
“Using this innovative financing tool will accelerate the country’s transition to a cleaner future and put people to work. Even with a modest amount of funding, a dozen states have shown how the nonprofit green bank model rebuilds America and lessens the impact of climate change on communities of color. Fully funded by a combination of public and private investment at the national level, we can create 5.4 million jobs,” Coalition for Green Capital Executive Director Jeffrey Schub said. “We applaud this inclusion and look forward to continuing its work with the committee.”
Twenty percent of the funds must go to low-income and climate-impacted communities, many of which have also been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inclusion of the nonprofit comes after nearly 100 organizations sent a letter to U.S. House and Senate leaders requesting future economic recovery legislation include such funding. With 40 million Americans filing for unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic so far and studies showing that up to 42 percent of those jobs will not return, the groups argue that Congress must urgently make long term investments that create jobs and build a cleaner future.
As envisioned in H.R. 5416 and S. 2057, the green bank nonprofit model would pair each public dollar with multiple private ones to build a range of clean energy projects throughout the U.S. This includes renewable power, building efficiency, grid infrastructure like transmission, industrial decarbonization, clean transportation, reforestation and climate-resilient infrastructure. Because the dollars are repaid over time, they can be recycled to make additional investments in the future.
Recent national polling shows eight out of 10 Americans want Congress to create clean energy jobs and seven out of 10 support depositing billions to achieve this.
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