Green Bank Will Lower Energy Costs, Create Jobs, Fight the Climate Crisis
Washington, D.C.– Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, issued the following statement after funding for a national green bank was included as part of the Build Back Better budget reconciliation framework released by the White House:
“The Coalition for Green Capital came together 11 years ago in the belief that public-private investment could accelerate the inevitable, vital transition from the old carbon power platform for the economy to the new, cheaper, more widely available, and safe clean power platform. In these years we have worked with hundreds of people in more than 30 states to create state and local green banks that have proved the useful, financially prudent and environmentally just precepts we have all advocated from the inception of this effort.
“In these same years we have worked with many Senators and Representatives in support of repeated legislative initiatives. In particular Senators Ed Markey and Chris Van Hollen and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell have been unflagging champions. In 2019, 2020, and 2021 this team introduced legislation in the Senate and House to fund a national climate bank by the name of Clean Energy Sustainability Accelerator, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They have been joined in this and similar legislative efforts by Senators Durbin, Stabenow, Murphy, Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Schatz, Heinrich, Booker and Warren, as well as former Senator Harris, now Vice President.
“In 2021 President Biden adopted this initiative as a core component of what has become known as Build Back Better. And today the President announced that this measure will be part of the reconciliation legislation. As soon as the appropriate process is concluded we hope and expect the waiting state and local green banks will be supercharged with new funding and other projects critical to the President’s agenda and the country’s future will be underwritten. This is what a legislative victory looks like, and we express the deepest congratulations and gratitude to all who made this possible, especially including President Biden, Senator Van Hollen, Senator Markey, and Congresswoman Dingell.”
BACKGROUND
President Biden included the national green bank that would inject funding into state green banks, as a key climate provision in the American Jobs Plan. The House passed the green bank as part of the INVEST in America Act (H.R. 3684), marking the third time the Accelerator has been passed by the chamber. In a July letter to congressional leaders urging action on climate infrastructure, over 140 mayors called for the creation of a national green bank. Last month, 10 governors on the front lines of the climate crisis called on Congress to pass the National Green Bank, because doing so would be one of “the most impactful actions to protect our climate” and environmental groups echoed that message.
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