December 12, 2024

Warren, Huffman Renew Push to Invest in Clean Energy

Bill would make historic investment to help fight the climate crisis, spark green innovation, and boost demand for American-made clean energy products

Bill Text | One-Pager

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) reintroduced the BUY GREEN Act, legislation to establish $1.5 trillion in federal procurement commitments for our clean energy future. The funds would be used to purchase American-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy products for federal, state, and local use and to establish grant funding for U.S. companies to invest in clean energy manufacturing.

The federal government spends $500 billion annually to purchase goods and services. Many of these products have significant environmental impacts, including transportation equipment, building infrastructure, and electronics.

“America needs to invest in clean energy like our future depends on it,” said Senator Warren. “This bill will help grow our green economy and establish America as a world leader in clean energy.”

"As we face the urgent challenges of the climate crisis, I'm proud to introduce a bill that represents a transformative step toward a cleaner, more sustainable future," said Representative Huffman. "By investing in supporting American-made clean energy products, we are not only driving the transition to renewable and emission-free energy but also creating opportunities for innovation and good-paying jobs here at home."

A 2021 poll showed that 59% of voters support this bill. This strong bipartisan support suggests that our country is ready for us to make big investments to save our planet and build back greener.

Specifically, the bill would:

  • Establish a "Clean Energy Fund" at the Department of Energy (DOE) for green procurement by authorizing the DOE to provide funding to federal agencies for clean energy purchases and creating a competitive federal grant program for state, local, and tribal governments to purchase clean energy products.
  • Reduce carbon pollution by providing enough funds to electrify the entire federal fleet, including postal service vehicles; providing enough funds to electrify all public transit and school buses; and providing funds to design, build, and retrofit buildings, including federal, childcare, educational, and manufacturing facilities, to be more energy efficient.
  • Boost the green economy and clean energy sector by establishing a grant program for U.S. companies to invest in clean energy manufacturing by retrofitting or building facilities that produce covered products and bolstering our ability to create clean energy products that can then be exported globally to make the U.S. a leader in green innovation.
  • Support workers and frontline communities by including strong labor provisions to ensure jobs provide strong wages, benefits, and worker protections by and directing 40% of state, local, and tribal grant funding to purchases that benefit frontline, disadvantaged, and vulnerable communities that have been environmentally neglected.
  • Protect taxpayer funds from fraud, waste, and abuse by forming a Green Procurement Oversight Advisory Board that will ensure the use of funds is compliant with clean energy and labor provisions and by directing the U.S. Comptroller General to conduct oversight of the use of funds and to publicly report on program efficacy each year.

In the Senate, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cosponsored this legislation.

The BUY GREEN Act has been endorsed by Sunrise Movement, MoveOn, GreenLatinos, Sierra Club, Green New Deal Network, Center for Progressive Reform, League of Conservation Voters, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, New Consensus, Public Citizen, Climate Hawks Vote, and Zero Hour.

Senator Warren has long worked to protect taxpayer money and ensure strong implementation of climate policy: 

  • In November 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren reintroduced the Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act. The bill proposes streamlining the process for people in communities affected by natural disasters seeking housing assistance.
  • In November 2024, Senator Warren and Representative Jared Huffman reintroduced the National Institutes of Clean Energy Act (NICE), legislation that would invest $400 billion over the next decade to establish and operate a new system of clean energy institutes at the Department of Energy (DOE) focused on research and development of advanced clean energy technologies.
  • In September 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus King, along with Representatives Ro Khanna, Alma Adams, Pramila Jayapal, and Jan Schakowsky, wrote to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging the agencies to develop strong guardrails for the 45Q tax credit, which is designed to encourage carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects.
  • In June 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Sean Casten led a letter to the Federal Reserve Board (Fed), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), urging regulators to stop their obstruction of global financial regulators’ work to tackle climate-related financial risks. The lawmakers also called out the weaknesses revealed by the Fed’s 2023 “pilot scenario analysis” exploring six major banks’ resilience to climate-related financial risks.
  • In May 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Robert Garcia reintroduced the BUILD GREEN Infrastructure and Jobs Act, which would authorize the U.S. Department of Transportation to distribute $500 billion over ten years to electrify and modernize public vehicles and rail and build new electric transportation infrastructure across the country. The bill would also create 1 million new jobs, save $100 billion annually in health damages, and prevent 4,200 deaths per year from air pollution.
  • In April 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Sean Casten and Veronica Escobar, urged the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council, composed of the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to finalize the Federal Supplier Climate Risks and Resilience Rule as quickly as possible.
  • In March 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren, released a statement describing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) finalized climate risk disclosure rule as “the bare minimum.”
  • In September 2023, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Martin Heinrich, Ed Markey, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Jeff Merkley called on the Treasury Department to take key actions pertaining to climate and climate-related financial risk to avert the impending environmental and economic crises.
  • In September 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Chair Gensler to quickly finalize a strong climate risk disclosure rule, reminding him that he has a mandate to protect investors and strong public support.
  • In March 2023, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Representatives Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin and 47 of their colleagues sent a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, urging him to protect investors and finalize a strong climate disclosure rule without further delay.
  • In September 2022, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren called on SEC Chair Gary Gensler to protect investors and stand up to fossil fuel lobbying by issuing a strong climate risk disclosure rule quickly.
  • In June 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren led a comment letter with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz on the SEC’s mandatory climate disclosure rule, highlighting several areas for improvement and key elements that the SEC should preserve in its final rule, including strong Scope 3 emissions disclosure requirements.
  • In March 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren led a letter with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz urging the SEC to require disclosure of anti-climate lobbying activities in the Commission’s rule.
  • In May 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren and then-Congressman Andy Levin introduced the Buy Green Act to use the enormous breadth of U.S. federal procurement to help fight the climate crisis, spur innovation, and boost demand for American-made clean energy products at home and in the rapidly-growing markets for green products abroad.
  • In May 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren and then-Congressman Andy Levin introduced the National Institutes of Clean Energy Act of 2021, legislation that would invest $400 billion over the next ten years to establish and operate a new system of institutes at the Department of Energy dedicated to research and development (R&D) of advanced clean energy technologies.
  • In April 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Sean Casten reintroduced the Climate Risk Disclosure Act of 2021 which would reduce the chances of environmental and financial catastrophe by requiring public companies to disclose more information about their exposure to climate-related risks.
  • In March 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled the BUILD GREEN Infrastructure and Jobs Act which would invest $500 billion over ten years in state, local, and tribal projects to jumpstart the transition to all electric public vehicles and rail and help modernize the nation's crumbling infrastructure. 

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