On October 2, 2023, Mark Vecchio was quoted in Infrastructure Investor regarding states and localities in the U.S. taking matters into their own hands to either implement or impede the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan.
According to the article, it’s only been a year and change since the Biden-Harris administration shocked the world with a landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, arguably eclipsing its predecessor, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which came in November the year before. Both bills offered an estimated $385 million and $1.2 billion in investment, respectively – though some analysts argue that the true cost of the IRA is more than three times that – alongside the chance to reshape the U.S. infrastructure landscape.
Discussing the significance of the bill, Vecchio highlighted some of the challenges facing states. “A lot of the problems at the state and local level are bureaucracy-related, just trying to work through the paperwork. It’s not really clear often what the criteria are for the green banks and how investors meet or not meet it. And is this the phenomena of statewide green banks something which is here today, gone tomorrow?” Vecchio said. “A lot of it is this is all very new and some of it is nice and shiny, flashy and interesting. But then when you start digging down into the details, a lot of the details are still missing. A lot of the specific implementation methodology has not yet worked its way through the system. And so oftentimes there are a lot more questions than there are answers.”
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