Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Charlotte on Thursday to announce the selection of recipients for $20 billion in federal funding for climate and clean energy projects across the country.
Most of the grant money, Harris said, will go to communities that have been historically underserved. “For the first time in history, we are providing tens of billions of dollars directly to community lenders to finance local climate projects,” she said. Harris described this as a novel approach that will empower communities to determine which projects will have the greatest impact in their hometowns. “We can invest in those projects in a way that will actually have value for the people who live there,” Harris said. “Instead of us from Washington, DC telling you what you need.”
The investment will support a wide range of climate and clean energy projects, including distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation, according to a White House press release.
Harris announced that the administration has selected eight nonprofits to establish a national financing network that will help fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects. The investment is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-of-its-kind, national-scale $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan (who previously served as Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality) were joined by Governor Roy Cooper, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, and Congresswoman Alma Adams.
“We’re bringing these opportunities to thousands of communities all across the country,” Regan said. “We’re strengthening our country’s economic competitiveness. We’re promoting energy independence, we’re tackling the climate crisis, all while delivering significant health benefits.”
At least 70% of the funds announced today—over $14 billion of capital—will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities, including what the administration describes as “historic energy communities that have powered our nation for over a century, communities with environmental justice concerns, communities of color, low-income communities, rural communities, Tribal communities, and more.”
“This is just one of the funds bringing billions of dollars to North Carolina thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s affordable clean energy plan,” said Michelle Carter, clean energy campaigns director at the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters in a statement. The organization said it has created a website, in collaboration with other organizations, to help North Carolinians access these funds.
“This investment demonstrates an important point: When we invest in climate, we create jobs, we lower costs and we invest in families,” Harris said in her concluding remarks. “When we expand access to capital and give every person in our nation no matter who they are or where they live the opportunity to pursue their dreams. We build a cleaner, healthier and more equitable and more prosperous future for everyone.”
Harris also used her visit to open the Biden reelection campaign’s first campaign field office in Charlotte.
