The United States faces an energy crisis. Demand for electricity is rising at rates not seen in decades. Our job at the Coalition for Green Capital is to help provide the clean, low-cost power all Americans need.
We share that goal with the Environmental Protection Agency, but you would never know it from the obstacles it has thrown at us, including attempts to terminate our contract and freeze our bank account. We shouldn’t be at cross purposes. To meet the rising demand, we need to work together, the public sector and the private, to unlock capital and enhance U.S. energy infrastructure.
This isn’t just a theory. It is already happening. Together with our network of partners, the CGC has helped mobilize $25.4 billion in public and private investments. Before joining the CGC, I did this in New York, where I led the creation of the New York Green Bank, the largest in the country.
Over 10 years, the New York Green Bank used its $1 billion in initial capital to attract $8 billion more, reducing energy costs and creating jobs statewide, while earning a financial return for the people of New York.
It has supported a Long Island facility that converts food waste into clean energy and new fuel-cell projects in Melville and East Meadow — on EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s home turf. Across many parts of New York, the NYGB has financed community solar facilities that cut electricity costs for families.
Green banks are a perfect way to fund smaller projects by using a small proportion of public capital to attract larger amounts of private investment. What worked in New York and other states is now being expanded nationwide.
In April 2024, following a law enacted nearly two years earlier, the EPA awarded the CGC $5 billion to capitalize a national green bank.
Just like in New York, our plan is to attract $9 to $14 of private capital for every dollar we invest. We have already put some of the money to work, and we are actively exploring many other investments, including transmission projects that will ensure businesses, especially in energy-intensive industries such as AI, have the power they need to grow.
That’s why we are so bewildered that the Trump administration has thrown roadblocks in our way. We are on the same side.
In announcing his “Great American Comeback” initiative, Zeldin said “every American should have access to clean air, land and water. I will ensure the EPA is fulfilling its mission to protect human health and the environment.”
We agree, and we can help.
Zeldin wrote recently that “we need federal funding to advocate our core mission.” We already have funding that can do just that. It is leveraging private sources in a way that the EPA should support.
That’s why we are working to establish green banks in all 50 states. Local communities are best situated to address their unique environmental and energy challenges.
One of our programs, the Municipal Investment Fund, received 112 applications from 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to help groups originate projects in their local markets.
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But despite our progress, the popularity of our program, and our alignment with the EPA’s goals, we have faced delays and attacks centered on baseless claims. A federal judge issued an opinion on April 16 that the “EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it failed to explain its reasoning and acted contrary to its regulations in suspending and terminating Plaintiffs’ grants.”
At this critical time, we are helping expand energy infrastructure to prevent higher electric bills and blackouts. Getting more energy to U.S. consumers and businesses and cleaning up our land, air, and water aren’t partisan issues — they’re an economic and national security imperative. Our model is working, our investments are ready, and the need has never been greater. Why not work together and get the job done?
Richard Kauffman is CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital. He was formerly an executive with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and the New York chairman of energy and finance.