Haynes and Boone's Newsroom
Paul Dickerson in Houston Chronicle article, "Renewable energy 'green bank' idea takes root"
04/11/2009
A coalition of energy companies hopes to reinvigorate the market for funding renewable energy projects by creating a government-backed “green bank” to serve as a conduit for billions of dollars in federal loans.
Under the plan, outlined in federal legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the bank would be an independent, wholly owned corporation of the federal government focused solely on loaning money to a range of projects deemed to promote clean energy.
These could include power lines to connect remote wind turbines with areas of high demand, landfill methane capture projects and refineries that turn organic material into fuels ...
And the green bank idea has been kicking around Washington for a couple of years, said Paul Dickerson, the former chief operating officer of the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy who is now an attorney with Haynes & Boone.
“What it took was a new administration that is rightly not trying to reinvent the wheel but in search of good ideas wherever they can be found, even if they came during a previous administration,” Dickerson said.
Excerpted from The Houston Chronicle, April 11, 2009.