A trip out to meet with the crew of a cargo ship stuck in the Baltimore Harbor because of that wrecked bridge.

I'm David Brancaccio. First, there's news the government has funded what are called green banks to the tune of

$20 billion. These are nonprofits that will lend money to the private sector for

projects to support sustainability and address climate change. This from the Climate Law of

2022 officially called the Inflation Reduction Act.

Marketplace's Samantha Fields reports.

At least 70% of this funding is going to clean energy projects in low income and

disadvantaged communities. These are communities with under-invested in

infrastructure that haven't had access to you know cheap solar cheap wind

cheap storage.

Melissa Lott at Columbia University's climate school

says this money could go to individuals

and to big projects intended to benefit whole towns.

These could be community solar local developments.

It also could be heat pumps and other types of things that can make homes not just run on clean energy,

but also have lower bills.

By investing 20 billion, David Victor at U.S. San Diego says the Biden administration is hoping

to attract billions more in private investment.

You give a combination of grants and loans to local projects,

and then because they have that funding via the federal government,

they can then go raise additional private funds.

Which, he says, is going to be critical for the clean energy. they can then go raise additional private funds.

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