US States compete on Green Banks, with CA the latest / Penn’s warehouse issues $31m energy efficiency bond
Posted on 17. Mar, 2013 by Sean Kidney in blog
We’re beginning to see some friendly competition emerging among US States around Green Banks. New York Governor Cuomo a few weeks ago announced the setting up of a new Green Bank.
Pennsylvania two weeks ago issued a $31m (climate) bond, bundling 4,700 residential energy efficiency loans. The bond was issued through a new facility to aggregate energy efficiency loans called WHEEL, developed with the help of the Energy Programs Consortium, CitiBank and PACE pioneer Cisco de Vries of RenewFund. The ambition is to develop a refinancing warehouse that can also be used by other States, because no single State has enough loan volume to do bonds at the size they really need to be. Have a peek into their thinking here.
But there’s more.
The CDFA and the Clean Energy Group held a useful Clean Energy Muni and State Bonds Forum in Washington DC last Wednesday. Very interesting was the news that State Revolving Funds, mainly used for water and sewage investments, can now – as a result of a recent court decision – be used for credit enhancing renewable energy and energy efficiency bonds. Expect action in this area.
But what was most interesting was the friendly banter among State representatives about Green Banks.