Senators Markey and Van Hollen, Congresswoman Dingell Highlight Inclusion of The Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator in Biden Recovery Proposal

Statement

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) today highlighted the inclusion of a national climate bank in President Joe Biden's infrastructure package, the American Jobs Plan. The lawmakers have introduced legislation to create a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator or national climate bank (S. 283 and H.R. 806), which would leverage $100 billion in public funds to create as much as $884 billion in total investment over ten years into projects that support clean energy and reduce emissions. Their legislation would provide financing to eligible regional, state and local green banks, make investments directly into projects that reduce carbon emissions, support workers and communities negatively impacted by the climate transition, and provide technical assistance for the start up of new green banks around the United States. It also would require that 40 percent of all investments be directed into disadvantaged communities facing climate impacts and include standards for prevailing wages and project labor agreements.

"It is good news that the Biden administration recognized the benefits of public investments in a national climate bank to immediately accelerate the deployment of clean energy and sustainable solutions," said the lawmakers in a joint statement. "The Clean Energy and Sustainably Accelerator will create millions of jobs, cut carbon emissions, and bring healthy solutions to new, underserved communities across the country. And when we invest in clean energy projects here in America, we will become a global leader in this emerging technology. We will continue working to shepherd this proposal through Congress--and to increase the ambition of the Accelerator to fully meet the scope of need and ensure that labor and environmental justice standards are brought in--so that every state, city, and town can benefit from this innovative public-private solution."

Across the nation -- in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Michigan -- public money has been used to leverage six to twenty times more dollars in private investment. On a national scale, investing $100 billion of public funds into a national climate bank could generate between $884 billion in total investment into clean energy related projects over just ten years. An investment of that size is projected to create four million jobs in four years, two-thirds of which can be filled right away by Americans with many skill sets, even during the pandemic. By 2030, the Accelerator could deliver one-fifth of all emissions reduction needed to reach a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

The legislation is also co-sponsored by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and U.S. Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Don Young (R-AK), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Mondaire Jones (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD).