‘Transformational’: could America’s new green bank be a climate gamechanger?

theguardian.com:

Buried on page 667 of the Inflation Reduction Act is a climate policy that has been in the making for more than a decade.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund provides $27bn in funding for projects aimed at lowering America’s planet-heating emissions. Some of those funds, roughly $7bn, will be dedicated to clean energy deployment in low-income communities – but the vast majority of the funds will be used to create America’s first national green bank, an initiative long championed by climate activists. Those activists hope that the national green bank, which will provide ongoing financial assistance to expand the use of clean energy across the country, will accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels.

With the green bank’s assistance, communities looking to bolster their nascent renewable energy industries will have increased access to funding that could bring them closer to meeting their climate goals.

“This is, I think, one of the most exciting and transformational investments and programs in this new law,” said Sam Ricketts, co-founder of the climate group Evergreen Action. “The importance of a national clean energy accelerator is that it’s a national entity, with a national mandate to finance these projects in every state.”

The creation of the national green bank reflects years of work from climate experts and their allies on Capitol Hill. A green bank proposal was included in the Waxman-Markey climate bill of 2009, which never made it through the Senate. The idea has been tossed around ever since but never realized – until last month, when Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats’ huge spending package, into law.

“The climate test is simple: jobs, justice and climate. The National Climate Bank