Spring isn’t the only thing that has sprung lately. We’ve seen big announcements (GGRF! Solar for All!) spring from EPA, we’ve seen the first Home Energy Rebate approval spring out of DOE, and we’ve seen an innovative financing product spring out of a state green bank. Read on!
First Direct Pay Bridge Loan. We see tremendous – literally uncapped – potential in new direct pay for clean energy tax credits. However, we know there could be challenges in the timing since many community-based organizations and local governments may struggle to find the up-front capital needed to build projects, and the lengthy wait to receive cash reimbursement from the IRS. State government leaders have a solution: a direct pay bridge loan. The Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority (MnCIFA) has signed a first-of-its-kind bridge loan to finance a clean energy project using direct pay at The Heights, a housing development in St. Paul. Want to learn more about state-supported bridge loan products and get support on Direct Pay? Check out our memo and get in touch.
Rebate Equity. We’ve been excited to see the pace picking up in the $8.8 billion Home Energy Rebates programs with fifteen states turning in applications, one state program approved (way to go, New York!), and new guidance coming out weekly from DOE. To ensure that immigrants and refugee communities – who face some of the biggest barriers to the clean energy transition and some of the most severe climate consequences – can access and benefit from these rebates, we recommend that states and advocates dig into these recommendations from Just Solutions Collective and the Climate Justice Collaborative of the National Partnership for New Americans. We also recommend you read these insights from Pearl Edison, an electrification software platform, that has shared useful, first-hand reflections on program design based on a pilot project in Detroit.
Don’t Just Wait. While you may have found yourself breathing a sigh of relief after turning in an EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) application on April 1, this is no time to rest on your laurels. Between now and the anticipated July selection announcements, we recommend that applicants:
Prepare for speedy award negotiations and contract signings. You can find resources from the Environmental Protection Network here.
Advocate for your application. Our friends in Pennsylvania are making the case and building support for their RISE PA concept. Could you do the same?
Explore alternative funding options. CPRG implementation grant applications exceed the available funding by many times over. We’d love to help you explore other potential funding streams, including helping local government applicants partner with a community-based organization to develop a Community Change Grant, getting financing through GGRF, or even looking at how state or philanthropic funding might meet your needs.
Community Change. Did someone say “Community Change Grants”? (Yes: it was us.). With this EPA program undersubscribed, we are encouraging friends in state and local government to facilitate or seek partnerships with community-based organizations to apply. Concepts should center the community’s voice in projects that combine climate action and pollution reduction for place-based impact. These are complex applications and we can match you with resources and assistance. We are especially eager to assist local governments who are the prime applicants.
Get Ready for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to Flow. With great fanfare, the EPA has announced winners of the $27B investments from the Inflation Reduction Act through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. We put together some thoughts on how States can prepare for those investments to help build their local green finance ecosystem and deliver on the program goals of cutting carbon pollution, delivering benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities, and leveraging this public funding to build a self-sustaining source of climate financing to capitalize on this historic opportunity. Read the full memo here.
Finally, we want this newsletter to be a place where we not only share our thinking and observations, but share YOUR resources. What would you like to see next time? Please send us your ideas.
This is an exciting and promising time. Keep up the good work, partners.
Sincerely,
The State Support Center Team