The idea of a national “green bank,” which would lend public money to help cash-strapped businesses and individuals invest in things like solar panels and energy-efficiency upgrades, has been kicked around since at least the first Obama administration. But it wasn’t until President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022 that the federal government set aside money, through the bill’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, for this express purpose.
On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced that the administration is ready to start signing checks. But rather than centralizing the funding in a single bank, the administration is routing the money — $20 billion of the total so far — to eight selected applicants, representing more than a dozen local nonprofits. The idea is…