The EPA announced $20 billion in clean energy financing to be targeted towards historically excluded communities on Thursday, one of the Biden administration’s biggest climate investments so far. The funds come from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, established in the Inflation Reduction Act, and will help poor communities and communities of color invest in clean energy and efficiency projects.
Eight entities will receive funds through the program, which they will then redistribute in the form of grants, low interest loans, or through other mechanisms. Reginald Parker, head of solar company Optimal Technology Corp., co-founded Freedmen Green Bank & Trust last year to help communities of color access IRA funding. “People in these communities are usually what we call the first, worst and hardest-hit by climate change,” Parker told the Washington Post. “This can give them the climate resiliency that they deserve.” (Washington Post $, AP, E&E $, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Impact Alpha, Newsweek)