Washington, D.C.— A new report released by Energy Innovation that projects the greenhouse gas emissions impact of the Build Back Better legislation says that funding a new national green bank would represent a “historic investment” in clean energy. The report, authored by Megan Mahajan and Robbie Orvis, used the Energy Policy Simulator to estimate the impact to greenhouse gas emissions, costs, jobs and public health based on the climate provisions found in the infrastructure bills under consideration by Congress.
In reference to the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, Mahajan and Orvis said, ”One particularly promising provision is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which would set aside $27.5 billion to create a national green bank.” Though the impact of the provision is not specifically modelled in the study, the report goes on to say the policy “would represent a historic investment that could catalyze emerging clean energy industries.”
“It’s clear that a federal green bank would be a historic investment in bringing clean energy projects to local communities and driving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital. “As proposed in the Build Back Better plan, funding for the Accelerator would generate billions in clean energy investment, create millions of jobs and reduce emissions by 500 million metric tons over the next decade.”
Third-party experts have estimated that over ten years, a $20B upfront capitalization of the Accelerator will:
- Support 500 million metric tons of cumulative emissions reductions with 92 million metric tons of those emissions reductions occurring in President Biden’s target year of 2030.
- Drive $200 billion of total investment in clean energy projects.
- Create 2.4 million jobs.
Read the report from Energy Innovation here.
###