Clean Energy Victory Bonds Finance Solar Boom

As divestment from dirty fuels take hold, cleantech financial instruments are ramping up. An intriguing entrant is San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act of 2014 (PDF), modeled after World War II’s Series E Bonds, which raised over $185 billion in eight years. (For the record, that’s $2 trillion in today’s numbers.)

Proposed in April, America’s Clean Energy Victory Bonds cost $25 and are expected to raise about $50 billion, thereby encouraging another $100 billion in private investment off the sidelines. That funding will be directed toward tax credits for renewable energy research and manufacturing, specifically for solar, wind, geothermal, electric vehicles and what Green America calls “second generation biofuels” like switchgrass and agricultural waste. (No one’s perfect.)

With nearly 40 Democratic sponsors, but more needed, CEVBs are parked in the form of H.R. 4426 at the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee. But don’t get too excited: It has lately, sadly, been fielding arguments of Environmental Protection Agency overreach from coal and gas defenders from Texas, Montana, Indiana and other Republican strongholds.

The road ahead for CEVBs would appear quite steep. With Energy and Power subcommittee chairman Congressman Ed (“I believe any energy strategy should include Kentucky coal“) Whitfield and full Energy and Commerce committee chairman Fred (“I am a major proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline“) Upton holding powerful influence over H.R. 4426, progressive CEVBs are going to have to fight hard for breathing room among the dirty fuels that are dooming us all to irreversible global warming, much less a competent hearing. Given that it is forward-thinking investment, production, property and other tax credits that are responsible for cratering solar panel costs and accelerated international solarization, super-cheap CEVBs look like a no-brainer for anyone looking to save the 21st century from the 20th century.

Let’s hope the House of Representatives has brains.

This article appeared at Solar Energy