Idea Details

President Obama is promoting green jobs and clean energy as solutions to our economic and climate change crises. The stimulus package is a good start, but funding for clean energy is still scarce in the midst of a global recession and credit crisis. At a presidential debate last fall, someone asked, "What can we do?" Green America%u2019s answer: invest in Clean Energy Victory Bonds (CEVB). Modeled on successful WWII-era Victory War Bonds that raised $185 billion ($2 trillion in today%u2019s dollars) and engaged over 85 million Americans who bought bonds that started at $25, CEVB would offer ordinary Americans federal government bonds that would fund large-scale deployment of clean energy. CEVB would pay an annual interest rate, with the payback based in part on the energy and energy savings the bonds generate. Green America and Clean Edge are teaming up to promote this idea, mobilize an advocacy coalition, and produce new research on this and other potential clean energy funding models.