By Jean Haggerty
Bills to create a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator that can leverage $100 billion of public funds to finance up to $463 billion in total investment over the next four years have been introduced in the House and the Senate.
The expectation is that the Accelerator will be pulled into a larger bill, most likely an infrastructure and climate package. The Accelerator would make up a significant piece of President Biden’s goal of $2 trillion in infrastructure spending.
Some bipartisan support exists, but a bill that includes this type of federal clean energy financing mechanism can also be passed using the budget reconciliation process.
“[Investing in clean energy] is an economic opportunity,” said Debbie Dingell, the Michigan Member of Congress who, along with Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), re-introduced legislation that would create the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator.
“When we invest in clean energy projects at home, we can export American technology and expertise overseas instead of importing foreign oil,” Markey said.
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