Clean Energy Jobs Fund
CGC is working with partners on Capitol Hill, on the campaign trail and in the environment and finance communities to create a national Clean Energy Jobs Fund to put five million people to work and build a cleaner and better future.
Momentum is growing to start a national Clean Energy Jobs Fund that would create five million jobs building clean power projects – from wind and solar generation to transmission to energy efficiency and EV charging equipment.
The fund has been introduced as legislation as S. 2057 by Senators Markey, Van Hollen, Schatz and Blumenthal and H.R. 5416 Rep. Debbie Dingell. Presidential candidates on the 2020 campaign trail have also proposed or endorsed new institutions built around the green bank model.
The Clean Energy Jobs Fund would be managed by a nonpartisan, non-profit corporation seeded with $35 billion of federal funds. It would be empowered to directly invest in large-scale clean energy projects, and provide capital to state and local green banks to invest in smaller distributed projects. It would provide technical assistance to jurisdictions that don’t currently have green banks, in order to help establish them.
Between now and 2021, CGC’s campaign will seek to build support from Congress, from presidential candidates, from investors, from environmental justice communities and others to ensure a national green bank is formed. The campaign includes communication, events, research, publications and more.
To date, CGC has analyzed the proposal and found that such an institution capitalized with $35 billion in federal funds could mobilize up to $1 trillion in total public and private investment. CGC has also conducted:
- An initial overview study of project areas across economic sectors that could be supported.
- A study of financial tools that the fund could use to capitalize state and local green banks.
- An overview of the fund’s role in supporting environmental justice objectives.
