A ‘Green Bank’ Could Bring Solar Power and Electric Buses to Appalachia

By: Katie Myers

September 17, 2024

Gwen Christon runs an IGA grocery store in Isom, a town in eastern Kentucky that struggles with exorbitant utility bills and few grocery options. Climate change is worsening both problems. When the state’s record flood of 2022 devastated her supermarket, the town became a food desert as she scrambled to reopen. She soon turned to a small, local financial institution called the Mountain Association for help. With its support, the store — a steadfast community institution since it opened in 1973 — found funding for rooftop solar and more efficient coolers, heating, and air conditioning. Those improvements saved Christon enough on her power bills to reopen — and hire 10 additional employees.

“They’re reaping the benefits of reduced energy costs, so that they can reinvest back into their businesses and continue to grow their workforce [and] provide lower-cost groceries,” said Robin Gabbard, president of the Mountain Association.

The organization Gabbard leads is a community development financial institution, or CDFI, one in a network of small local lenders across Appalachia and the country that provide small loans to entrepreneurs and homeowners in rural and low-income areas.  

Thanks to $500 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, a new initiative called the Green Bank for Rural America could help channel money to nonprofit lenders like the Mountain Association to support community solar arrays, apprenticeships in renewable energy fields, electrified public transit, and other projects. The program will link over 75 rural CDFIs, with priority given to those in the Appalachian Mountain region. It is part of the EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created to support financial organizations with a history of deep community relationships and investment in local projects. 

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