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HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, US, September 20, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
The state of Pennsylvania has launched an
investment strategy to promote greater public and private
investments in renewable energy sources.
The Keystone Green Fund will include US$40 million in state
assets and several million more from Pennsylvania-based energy
funds, to attract and leverage private sector investments in clean
technology products and firms that will benefit the state economy.
The investment fund will be a key of the Keystone Green Investment
Strategy that is one of the most comprehensive in the country and
the result of meetings with private sector investors, financial
experts, non-profit state energy funds and others.
“Keystone Green is a comprehensive effort to identify investments
that can generate superior returns for Pennsylvania taxpayers, while
attracting future private sector venture capital investment and job
growth in clean technology industries,” says state treasurer Robert
Casey. His department will take specific steps to ensure that $50
million of public equity holdings can take advantage of the
potential opportunities that clean technology industries offer in
the new marketplace.
Casey will adopt a series of written guidelines, or ‘investment
screens,’ for all its public equity investment managers to consult
in assessing the potential risks of loss from climate change, as
well as changes in international energy economics and carbon
regulation. The Green Fund will use $15 million from the Treasury
and another $25 million in clean technology opportunities/
Casey will reallocate $50 million in state assets from existing
investment managers to those who can demonstrate a track record of
providing superior returns on their investments in clean technology
stocks. Pennsylvania will formally join the Investor Network on
Climate Risk, a network of institutional investors and financial
institutions that promotes understanding of the financial risks and
investment opportunities posed by climate change.
“This new investment strategy by the Treasurer links environmental
protection and economic development, and puts Pennsylvania at the
forefront of a national trend to promote sustainable economic
development,” says Brian Hill of the Pennsylvania Environmental
Council. “Encouraging private investment now in environmentally
friendly power will be a competitive advantage to the Commonwealth
as it seeks to attract and retain jobs in the future,” adds Kevin
Murphy of the Berks County Community Foundation.
Venture capitalists invested $1.6 billion last year in clean
technology companies in North America, according to Cleantech
Capital Group, 43% more than 2004. The report says “the seeds are
being laid now to determine which state's companies will get the
lion's share of investment, and which states will call the leaders
of the cleantech industry their own.”
Three of Pennsylvania's four sustainable energy funds (TRF's
Sustainable Development Fund, West Penn Power Sustainable Energy
Fund, and First Energy's Sustainable Energy Fund) have expressed
their interest in co-investing with Treasury in the Keystone Green
Fund. Casey says this marks the first time that sustainable energy
funds have pooled their resources in the interest of alternative
energy and economic development.
The Pennsylvania Treasury Department is responsible for investing
and making deposits of state funds, as well as municipalities and
individual investors, and it places $12 billion into investment
pools. In some pools, Casey has authority to place monies in any
investments.
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