If I told you your state could create thousands of family-supporting jobs, stimulate a new growing market within your state, and create cleaner, less expensive energy all from existing state funds, would you take an interest? You should.

Opening a Green Bank in your state would:

Create new businesses · Lower energy costs · Create new jobs · Increase the state’s GDP

What is a Green Bank?

A Green Bank is an innovative finance structure designed to attract private, clean energy investment to increase the total amount of investment in clean energy markets. This could breathe life into the clean energy market of a state, as well as stimulate jobs and the economy. Green Banks focus exclusively on delivering low-cost financing to clean energy projects via low-cost loans or loan guarantees.

The way they would work is that the state would create a non-profit corporation governed by a board of directors of state officials and local leaders. A funding source would be identified through state budgets or funds from existing programs such as Energy Efficiency or Renewable Energy funds. The Green Bank would have bonding authority so it can sell loans to recapitalize its balance sheet and increase its lending capacity and assist more customers and businesses reach their goals of cleaner, less expensive energy. Green banks will help, not hurt, existing commercial banks and lenders by enhancing their ability to earn a rate of return on projects that otherwise would be too expensive for borrowers to pursue.

To date, 6 states operate Green Banks in the United States, with nearly a dozen others in development. Connecticut’s Green Bank has generated almost $1 Billion of total clean energy investment in 5 years of activity and has created over 10,000 jobs. The state of Nevada passed legislation to begin a Green Bank and is expected to generate $240 Million of total lending capacity for underserved markets. The UK, Australia, Japan, and Malaysia all operate national green banks which have provided clean, low-cost energy to their citizens while providing a vibrant, growing sector of the economy a foothold upon which to grow.