Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Fund will transform the community development finance
industry for clean energy
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Opportunity Finance Network
(OFN) was officially awarded a grant under the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA's) Clean Community Investment Accelerator
(CCIA) program, part of the $27
billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). OFN's award of
$2.29 billion is the largest CCIA
award and the second-largest GGRF award. This historic investment
demonstrates OFN's deep commitment to transforming clean energy
finance by integrating it into the community development finance
industry and addressing the climate crisis by increasing access to
capital in underserved communities across the country.
"This is an exciting moment for the country and one that OFN and
community development finance institutions are made for," said
Harold Pettigrew, President and
CEO of OFN. "The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is a catalytic,
once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform clean energy finance.
OFN thanks the Biden-Harris Administration for placing this
responsibility with community lenders and for being outstanding
partners throughout the award process. We look forward to working
alongside all the awardees to ensure that no community is left
behind through the clean energy transition."
"With climate impacts increasingly impacting all Americans, and
especially those in communities that have been historically left
behind, EPA knew it had to move swiftly and deliberately to get
this historic funding out the door," said EPA Administrator
Michael S. Regan in a press
release. "Two years after he signed the law, President Biden is
delivering the full $27 billion that
he secured in this legislation. American families will soon feel
the benefits in the form of lower energy costs and revitalized
communities, while the United
States leads the clean energy economy of the future."
The CCIA is a $6 billion program
for national nonprofit hubs to deliver financial resources and
technical assistance to build the climate lending capacity of
community lenders working in low-income and underinvested
communities. OFN will invest in mission-driven lenders nationwide
and serve as a resource hub, providing capital, technical
assistance, and market-building support.
With a long history and proven track record of investing in
low-income and low-wealth communities, OFN and the CDFI industry
are well-positioned to deploy this capital into the communities
that need it most to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and other
sources of air pollution, lower energy costs, create clean energy
jobs, mobilize additional private capital, and strengthen local
communities.
Since being selected for an award in the spring, OFN has focused
on building tools to demystify and effectively engage with the CCIA
program. Some of those tools include OFN's CCIA 101 webinar, a
detailed and growing set of FAQs, and the launch of our online
climate hub at climate.ofn.org. EPA's GGRF-related information and
resources are available here:
https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund
Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is the nation's leading
network and intermediary focused on community development
investment, managing over $1 billion
in total assets and a membership of over 420 community development
financial institutions (CDFIs), which includes community
development loan funds, credit unions, green banks, banks, minority
depository institutions, and venture capital funds. Our network
of CDFIs works to ensure communities underserved by
mainstream finance have access to affordable, responsible financial
products and services, with a deep focus on serving rural, urban,
and Native communities across the United
States. OFN is a trusted investment partner to the public,
private, and philanthropic sectors – foundations, corporations,
banks, government agencies, and others – and, for nearly 40 years,
has helped partners invest in communities to catalyze change and
create economic opportunities for all.
Since its founding in 1986, OFN members have originated over
$100 billion in financing, helping to
create or maintain more than 3 million jobs, start or expand more
than 850,000 businesses and microenterprises, and support the
development or rehabilitation of nearly 2.4 million housing units
and more than 14,000 community facility projects.
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SOURCE Opportunity Finance Network