Remarks for the Opportunity Finance Network Annual Conference
Michael Regan, EPA Administrator
Los Angeles, CA
Thank you, Robert, for that wonderful introduction. I’m humbled and grateful for the invitation to speak at the Opportunity Finance Network’s 39th annual conference!
It’s a pleasure to join you all.
I’m grateful to the OFN for uniting such an incredible range of stakeholders. Small business owners, investors, policymakers, researchers, students and non-profits all have unique and important roles to play in helping to build healthier and more resilient communities.
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge the remarkable work of everyone here today.
Your commitment to providing lifechanging resources to underserved communities has impacted countless lives across this country.
Community Development Financial Institutions, in particular, have been at the forefront of these efforts — providing much-needed loans, investments, and financial services to businesses and individuals who may not have access to traditional banking services.
Your institutions are not just another financial service provider — they are community builders and champions of justice.
You all understand that investing directly into communities that lack resources and opportunity, is not simply a financial transaction, but it’s an investment in the future of these communities and the people who live there.
At the same time, CDFIs are also leaders in the emerging field of green finance. You all understand and recognize that protecting the health of our economy and protecting the health of people and the environment aren’t mutually exclusive — but they, in fact, go hand-in-hand.
And folks, I want to be clear; the Biden-Harris Administration and this EPA share that conviction.
Environmental justice is — and always will be — a top priority for this administration and for me personally.
For too long, a lack of access to capital in underserved communities across the country has hindered our progress on addressing the climate crisis and truly advancing environmental justice.
President Biden came into office with a plan to fundamentally change that. He began his presidency with the bold vision that our economy could, in fact, grow, and thrive from the middle out and bottom up — and not the top down.
And since day one, our EPA has played a critical role in helping the president to deliver on that mission, and we’re leaving no stone unturned.
EPA — a $10 billion dollar a year agency — has been tasked with deploying over $100 billion dollars — that’s billion with a ‘B’ — in resources from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
And folks, at least $40 billion dollars of that is being invested directly in communities who have long borne the burden of pollution and environmental injustice — thanks to President Biden’s Justice40 initiative.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to fix many of our nation’s most longstanding and pervasive environmental and public health concerns, and we are committed to getting it right.
And one of the most innovative components of the historic Inflation Reduction Act is the creation of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is a $27 billion dollar competitive grant program designed to bring hundreds of billions of private capital off the sidelines to address climate change head on, reinforce our country’s economic competitiveness, and directly invest in communities that have been marginalized for decades.
Through the program, EPA is spurring the creation of a first-of-its-kind national financing network to scale deployment of clean technologies nationally, building community clean financing capacity locally, and facilitating the adoption of clean solar energy to lower energy bills for millions of Americans.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is a transformative program that creates unprecedented opportunity for collaboration.
It’s an opportunity for private partners like community lenders to work alongside the federal government to deliver transformative resources to the communities who need them the most.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was designed to have as wide-ranging a reach as possible, and we know that collaboration is the key to achieving our collective goals.
Simply put, the government cannot do this alone.
Community lenders, including CDFIs, have the opportunity to help finance a just clean energy transition through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, while addressing long-standing economic and environmental injustice.
EPA will lean on private sector leaders to build and join partnerships, support project pipelines, and facilitate coordination to realize the transformative vision of this historic program.
And folks, the time is now.
We are at a unique moment in history. Addressing the climate crisis is certainly a massive undertaking, but it’s also an opportunity — unlike ever before — to work together to achieve a healthier and more equitable world.
We have an ambitious agenda to achieve and, by joining forces, the government and private sector can maximize our collective impact to ensure that all people — regardless of the color of their skin or the community they live in — have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, while building a globally competitive and durable economy.
I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of our communities, the future of our environment, and the future of America under the leadership of President Biden.
Thanks again for inviting me to join you. I hope you have a great conference!