 Good afternoon everyone. I hope you're all doing well and staying somewhere warm and inside. It's pretty snowy and there's a mix of sleet and freezing rain here right now so not the best day to be doing anything outside. So yeah, the focus of our conversation today is creating a green bank to improve options for financing clean energy and maintenance. I wanted to start with a land acknowledgement. Hopefully you know which tribe or tribes lived in your area where I am. This is primarily Wabanaki land. And we're pretty close to Penobscot land. It's hard to say exactly who was where. I know they all moved around a lot. But, you know, it's important to acknowledge those who came before us who we've stolen the land from. A little bit about me. I studied civil and environmental engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and then I worked for three years in construction management in Connecticut and New Jersey. And I decided to transition career and move to Reno, Nevada to work for a nonprofit teaching middle school and high school students about energy efficiency and clean energy. And I built a whole energy efficiency curriculum and led both in school lessons with students as well as professional development workshops with more than 50 students with more than 50 teachers over the course of about five years. And then I worked for the Nevada governor's office of energy where I led energy efficiency programs statewide, ranging from weatherization of homes for low income seniors to helping cities, counties and school districts implement multimillion dollar self funding efficiency projects. I moved back to Maine in 2017, and I've been working for revision energy as a designer designing heat pumps and solar systems for a little over three years now. And I've transitioned to houses entirely off of fossil fuels. We transitioned our home in Reno to net zero energy. And our house in Maine, which is an old post and beam farmhouse built in 1828. I turned on the boiler over the weekend for the first time in three years just to make sure it still works. And otherwise we've been heating entirely with heat pumps. Our solar array doesn't quite offset all of our electricity usage, but I think we're about 70% self powered with our solar array. And we've done a lot of efficiency improvements as well. So I have a lot of firsthand experience with transitioning homes off of fossil fuels to clean energy. So before we start talking about the green bank, I wanted to bring up another bill that is scheduled for a hearing next week. I've been working with representative Maggie O'Neill on LD 99, which calls for divesting the public employee retirement system from fossil fuels. I have added up their holdings and identified what I consider to be fossil fuel companies. And they have over a billion dollars in fossil fuel investments. And that's down from one, about $1.2 billion a year ago. And, and that's due to them losing in the market over the last year. And the bill hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, February 10th at 11am. And I'd encourage all of you to submit testimony in support of the bill. And if you don't want to try to give in person testimony during the hearing written testimony can be submitted online prior to the hearing. And I'll share a link in the chat that has a lot more information about how to submit written testimony as well as some example testimony drafted. The key thing is to say that you're a main resident. If you were a public employee at any point or part of the public employee retirement system, it's really important to acknowledge that. And then to say whatever you want in regards to why you think it's important for them to divest from fossil fuels and, and then encourage them to support the bill. But the more testimony that goes in in advance of the hearing, the more likely it is to pass. So I want to encourage all of you to do that. And also it's kind of a great warm up if there's other bills that you're excited about like the green bank bill. It's good to practice working through their system and know what to do so as a legislative session gets going faster. It will be a less complicated process for you. And so, to me, the primary reason to divest from fossil fuels is because they're a terrible investment. The, the public employee retirement system has over a billion dollars invested in fossil fuels. And that's basically flat lined and actually decreased in the last 10 years. And even leading up to prior to the pandemic, ignoring the effect that the pandemic and the recession have had on the fossil fuel industry. As of December of 2019, the fossil fuel industry was down about 20% compared to 10 years before. At the same time, the S&P 500 had risen over 150% over that same time period. So if that billion dollars had been invested in the stock market in general, it would have, it would have created an additional billion and a half dollars in returns for the retirement system. And so they've literally lost out on over a billion dollars by maintaining these investments in fossil fuels. And it's really just sad and disappointing to me because there was a big push in 2014. And they, and the public employee retirement system said, oh no, we need to, we need to have the ability it's our fiduciary responsibility to be able to invest in fossil fuels. We don't know where the market's going to go. No one can say where the market's going to go and it could be really good for us. And it's been terrible. And it's cost a billion dollars for the retirees of the state. In addition to continuing to fund the climate problem nationwide and globally. And looking ahead, we know that there's no future for the fossil fuel industry. 189 countries have signed on to the Paris Climate Accord. We're rapidly transitioning to electric vehicles and heat pump systems and away from oil heating oil and gasoline powered vehicles and numerous cities, counties and states have made clean energy commitments. And so the fossil fuel industry is waning, and they're never going to be posting the same levels of profits. I know that 10 years ago, there are several years where ExxonMobil was the most profitable company in the world. Well, last year they lost half their value. They're just not good investments and it's important for the future of the retirees in Maine to transition off of them. So again, I hope you'll click on that link in the chat and provide some testimony in support of this bill. It's really important for the future of the retirement system and for the future of a habitable planet. So transitioning to the green bank. The key question. Many of you probably have is what is a green bank. And there's a number of examples around the country and around the world. And it's typically a public or nonprofit institution that uses public funding to leverage additional investment from private lenders into the clean energy sector. And so a green bank will partner with local banks, local credit unions and other lenders to leverage their private investment, which creates a multiplier effect. I'll talk more about some other green banks in a bit, but often they can leverage five to 10 times more private investment than the public capital. For instance, a hundred million dollar investment can leverage 500 million to a billion dollars in private investment. So it's, it's meant to accelerate the clean energy transition. And by partnering with with other local lenders. And so to me the real problem with efficiency and clean energy. We've been working in this sector for more than a decade now. And we know that these projects will pay for themselves, typically within 10 years, some much faster, some take a little bit longer. But the project will pay for itself through the long term energy savings. But many, many families across Maine and around the country can't afford the upfront costs. So if you if you need to spend 10 or $15,000 for efficiency improvements in your house and 20 or $30,000 for a solar bay to provide all your electricity. If you don't have any substantial savings, then you don't have the money to invest. And most lenders require a certain income level. They're looking at your loan to income ratio. And so if you don't have enough income, then you're not eligible for a loan. And many low income families across the state lack equity in their homes or the sufficient savings to be able to move forward. And so there's, I would estimate that 50% of the households in Maine have, have very little ability to participate in efficiency and clean energy or fund these types of projects in their homes. And while efficiency Maine has some incredible programs and offers great rebates. If you get $1,000 rebate on a $5,000 project, you still have to be able to afford the other $4,000 of it. And so there's still a lot of households that aren't able to participate. So here we go. I started working with representative Ziegler who represents me here in in moral, he represents moral Montville Liberty and a handful of other towns Lincolnville. And we, I worked with him to draft LD 1634 and act to create the main clean energy fund. And that bill called for $100 million in bond funding from the state, which is a really big lift. It's a, it's a tough bill to pass. It was carried forward. It was carried forward to the following session last year. And then the session was ended prematurely due to the pandemic. And so the bill died in committee, like so many other bills from last year. But we have used the that time to really build up support for the green bank over the last year, last couple of years. So we're in a very different position than we were a year ago. There's not a bill number yet this year. But the bill is submitted to the Reviser's office. Representative Ziegler is the primary sponsor again. And the lead co-sponsor is Senator Mark Lawrence, who is co-chair of the Energy Utilities and Technology Committee, which is where the bill was heard last year. We have support. We have general support from Michael Stoddard. I think he's limited by the, right now the governor's office is neither supporting nor opposing the bill. And I think he's constrained by them. And so he hasn't, he hasn't come outright in support of it, but we'll see what happens as the session gets started as the bill moves forward. But I've participated in a number of calls with him and he helped me to redraft the bill this year so that it will fit under Efficiency Main. And then Henry Beck, the Main State Treasurer, is in support of this and he spoke on a lunch and learn that we hosted in December. And so much stronger support than we've had in the past. And like I mentioned, I worked with Michael Stoddard at Efficiency Main to redraft the bill so that it will create a new initiative under Efficiency Main. This year we're not calling for any bonds or state funding, which makes passing the bill a lot easier. The bills that require funding have to go through the Appropriations Committee and also require a two thirds vote to pass. And so now without and without requesting any state funding. We don't need to go through the Appropriations Committee and it's just a simple majority vote to pass the bill. And so that significantly increases the chance and makes it a much easier bill to move forward. We are expecting funding from the National Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, also called the National Climate Bank, which I'll get into in a lot more detail later. And I've already mentioned how this will leverage private capital from local banks, credit unions, and other lenders here in Maine. I don't want to linger too much. This, it tends to get pretty technical. These are the types of investments that the Clean Energy Accelerator can invest in. And so they can take on debt in projects. The big thing is offering credit enhancements or a loan loss reserve and loan guarantees. So that would be like essentially setting $10 million aside and using that as a pool for any projects that default. So other local lenders have a reduced risk in investing in these types of projects because the loan loss reserve will limit the defaults on their projects. And so by reducing the risk for other lenders, it allows them to lower their interest rates and makes it easier for them to participate in the new market. And the Michigan Saves is a green bank style program in the state of Michigan that's been around for about 10 years. And they created a loan loss reserve. That's essentially the only thing that they do is they operate the loan loss reserve, and they've partnered with a number of credit unions across the state. And they've been able to leverage their initial investment 30 to one. So $100 million investment becomes $3 billion in projects. And so it's a very powerful tool for working with other lenders and for reducing the risk on projects. The green bank will be able to aggregate and warehouse loans together. So that would be taking, you know, if 100 projects are completed, they can bundle them together and resell them on the secondary market, which provides that capitalization again. So that they have more money to be able to loan out. It basically creates a lot of different tools that allow them to fund projects, and then recapture that funding from other sources, other lenders, and be able to make loans again and again and again. Because the faster it can cycle through the funding, the more projects get invested, and every time they invest in new projects, there's the ability to leverage more private capital. And so it can really move things forward very quickly in the, in the place. And, and then they can also invest in any other financial product approved by the board of efficiency main. And so that gives them additional leeway these these first four investment types are all proven by other green banks around the country and around the world. But as new tools and new approaches are developed. We want them to have the ability to adapt without having to go to the legislature every time there's there's something new that they want to do. And this bill specifically directs 40% of funding to vulnerable communities in Maine. So that includes low income communities, low income households and communities of color. So that provides a strong equity piece to this legislation to help make sure that those who have been left behind by the clean energy transition to date, those who have been most negatively affected by fossil. The fossil fuel industry are being helped. And, you know, it's not just going to middle and upper income households. We've been working for six or nine months now to really build statewide support for this. I led a main green bank summit in June last year and we had over 100 attendees, we had about 120 attendees for lunch and learn event in December. We had various meetings with specific industries in Maine. We met with the main bankers association credit union league and a handful of lenders in January. And we have a follow up meeting tomorrow where we're trying to get the bankers association to commit to supporting the bill. Right now, it sounds like they don't have any objections. But we're trying to get them to advocate in support of it and have the most support that we can. We have a whole array of environmental groups that are supportive including Sierra Club and 350 Maine have really been leading efforts in the state. And then the environmental priorities coalition, which is made up of 32 environmental and nonprofit groups has made this one of their priorities for this legislative session. And so support from environmental community in Maine revision energy is backing this bill and we're working on bringing other clean energy companies on board realtors contractors and architects, both the cities of Portland and South Portland are supportive. And I think that this week, it's looking really likely that the Portland Chamber of Commerce will support this bill. It's very unique, you know, in in what is, you know, primarily an environmental climate bill to have a broad support from the business community as well. So quickly looking at the types of impact that this can have in 2019, the Connecticut Green Bank invested almost $41 million in public capital. By almost nine to one so they brought in $300 million in private capital. These investments together generated almost 18 million in state tax revenues created 3300 jobs. In 2019 alone, the Connecticut Green Bank funded 7600 residential solar installations. In Maine in the same time period. There were less than. I think there were less than 2000 solar arrays installed in Maine in that same time period so the Connecticut Green Bank is funding far more solar than the current solar industry in Maine is currently installing all that equates to over a million tons in CO2 savings from the projects that they've that they've funded. And they've been able to create in Connecticut, as they've been as they've had successful programs, they've been able to dial in and recognize specific gaps in the marketplace. Since they recognize that they were weren't having as much participation from low income communities and specifically communities of color, and they created a program that specifically targets those communities. And they've had a lot of success in installing solar on low income houses in communities of color in in the state. And they've had this opportunity to direct investment into the homes into the businesses that need it the most. So for the Maine Green Bank, there's several potential funding sources. The National Climate Bank, the National Climate Bank is the most likely one to move forward. We're not requesting any bond funding this year. If the National Climate Bank doesn't move forward isn't fully funded. Then we'll try to pursue other funding options moving forward the bill leaves it open so it can receive funding from other sources. But at this point we don't want to. We know that the state budget is definitely strapped due to the pandemic. And there's lots of other priorities that they're looking at bond funding for. So we're not trying to do that. We don't want to receive funding from nonprofits or foundation grants. Right now, I think all of the regional greenhouse gas initiative funding goes to efficiency main already. So we don't want to pull funds from other programs to invest in the Green Bank. We'd like to, we'd like to use new funding. That could be an option. Personally, I would love to see the main public employee retirement system divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy in the state of Maine through the Green Bank. But currently we're not requesting that in the divestment bill and I think it probably makes sense to have a few years of track record demonstrate that the main Green Bank is a successful investment option. And then try to get the public employee retirement system to invest, you know, three to five years down the road. But that could be an option for funding as well. So this next segment of the presentation is looking at the National Climate Bank or the national level clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And I've borrowed some slides from the Coalition for green capital, which is a national nonprofit group that has been helping us here in Maine create the main Green Bank, but has also been leading efforts for the National Climate Bank. And so the key is President Biden's climate goals are very ambitious and will require a tremendous amount of investment in renewable energy. He has set a goal of 100% clean power by 2035 and net zero energy by 2050. And together, those will require approximately $2 trillion in investment to achieve the climate and clean energy goals that he has set so far. And this slide show was put together in November. So it's not looking specifically at the executive orders that he's signed so far but his commitments on the on the campaign trail. Currently, there's legislation it's actually supposed to be introduced this week that will create a $100 billion national clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And they estimate that that will create over 4 million jobs in the first four years across a whole array of different industry sectors. The bill is the bill was introduced in 2019. And last year it passed out of the House of Representatives twice as part of larger bill packages that Senator McConnell never introduced in the Senate so they never came up for a vote in the Senate. But last year Kamala Harris was one of the co sponsors of the Senate bill. And, and we know that the Biden administration is supportive of this type of investment, and it will probably be included as part of a larger package of infrastructure investments. But they are, they are planning to reintroduce the bill my understanding is this week. When it passed out of the House of Representatives, both representative Pingree and representative Golden voted in support of it. Right now we're pushing to try to get both of them to co sponsor the bill. We've met with Senator or we've met with Senator Collins, and we were encouraging her to co sponsor the bill. We don't know if that will happen yet but you know, it's a stretch, we're trying to push. And we have meetings the Sierra Club has meetings with both representatives and Senator King in the next week. So we're going to be pushing them to co sponsor the bill, among other things. And so, trying to trying to develop support for the federal bill to make sure that we have funding to support the main, the main green bank effort. And it's a pretty simple piece of legislation because essentially it requires an appropriation. And they've actually my understanding is they've actually already created the nonprofit shell that will be the national clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And so it'll, it'll $100 billion in funding from Congress will fund that. And, and then they're ready to go and off to the races on that front. And because of the way that it's structured it doesn't require a major piece of legislation and can probably be passed through the reconciliation process. So, depending on where things go with the filibuster and, you know, with the very split Senate 5050 split with Kamala Harris as a deciding vote. The reconciliation process would allow them to pass this without needing a 60 vote majority. And so that's a great option and very exciting we are still trying to get Republican co sponsors, but even without any Republicans, this could still pass. And it will fund its, it's the clean energy and sustainability accelerator and it will fund a lot of different types of projects, including renewable energy, building efficiency, industrial decarbonization, electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging. It will also support regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry, which could be really big in Maine. Cross laminated timber could be a big industry in Maine as using our local wood products to essentially store carbon and buildings in the long term. And it can also fund a variety of climate resilience projects, which could include wastewater treatment plants, roads, bridges, where we're planning for several feet of sea level rise. And I think the main climate council is preparing for up to eight feet of sea level rise by 2100. So that's going to require a lot of investment in infrastructure to to help make sure that we're ready for for that and the many other implications of climate change in the state. And so it's exciting to have this as a potential source of funding. Similar to what we've drafted in Maine, the national bill calls for 40% of investment to be made in disadvantaged communities to create jobs and lower energy costs in those communities. It'll have a significant impact for frontline communities that are facing the brunt of climate change, as well as Native American tribes and low income communities around the country. And the fossil fuel industry has had an incredibly disproportionate impact. They, they almost exclusively build fossil fuel infrastructure in low income communities. And, and then if a refinery or power plant is built in your backyard and your property value crashes. And then people can't leave because their house is worthless, and they have no equity to be able to move somewhere else and so they've really been a lot of injustice and inequity in the fossil fuel industry from the health impacts and, and the pollution. And so it's very important to help to address that. And this is uniquely designed to be able to do that. I think I've mentioned, this is a proven model. The Connecticut Green Bank has been the most successful over the last 10 or 11 years, but there's numerous other green bank type programs, ranging from Hawaii to Florida. And then also internationally, I attended the International Green Bank Summit in New York in 2014, and met the director of the Australian Green Bank and the UK Green Investment Bank. And there's efforts in Germany and Japan and Malaysia and all around the world. And so it's a really well proven model that that we know can be successful, both at the national level and at the state level. And from the projections that I've seen, if the National Climate Bank is funded at the $100 billion level. One of the big things that the National Climate Bank will do is pass funds through to state level efforts. And so the main green bank could receive $100 million to $200 million in upfront funding from the National Climate Bank, which is why it's so important for us to support the national level legislation and push our representatives and senators in Maine to support that so that there's funding for the work that we're trying to do in Maine. And then there's a couple of things that we that we can do to support the federal legislation and I'll paste them in the chat. One is that I've worked with the Coalition for Green Capital to draft a sign on letter. And we'd encourage you all to sign on in support of the federal legislation. It's asking our two representatives and both of our senators to co-sponsor the federal bill. And so I hope that you all can sign on to that and share it with others. And then Sierra Club has also created an ad up campaign that will where the sign on letter, everyone's names get added at the bottom and we can tell them how many people have signed on to it. The campaign will send messages directly to your representative and your senators, both senators, telling them that you support the bill and asking them to co-sponsor it. So two different ways to have an impact at the federal level. And I'd encourage you all to sign on to each of those. And like I mentioned, the National Clean Energy Accelerator will provide funding, including startup operating funds and capital for state level green banks. The states in green already have an existing green bank entity. And Nevada, I helped to create the Nevada Green Bank while I was, while I was living in Reno and working out there and spent three or four years trying to push that legislation forward. And, and so I'm excited to see Nevada and green on this and then all the blue states on this map are have green banks in development. And you'll notice that they're, they're happening in a lot of purple and red states at this point, South Carolina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Alaska. There's a lot of different states that are that are recognizing that this is a successful model, and it'll help create jobs and help create local economic growth. And so it's not, it's not a partisan issue and it really shouldn't be a partisan bill. And I'm excited to say I actually I didn't add this into my slide. We've lined up to Republican co-sponsors for the main green bank legislation. And so I was really excited to line up a representative and a senator at the state legislature in support of this. I think this is the last slide on the federal level green bank. But this is highlighting some of the different types of programs that already exist with with the existing state level and local level green banks. And so these types of programs can be replicated in Maine or in other states across the country and and can work like things are ready to go and and can and can move forward very quickly. Using some of these existing programs. It's really incredible with my experience working with other green banks. There's a lot of collaboration and support within the green bank community. The executive director from the Connecticut green bank speak at the main green bank summit we hosted in June. And we had the chief investment officer from the Connecticut green bank speak to the banks and lenders here in Maine. And they want other states to succeed. It's a really unique model because it's not competitive the the idea is not for it to compete with other local lenders. It's for it to crowd in those other lenders and help give them access to new markets that that they're currently not investing in. So in terms of next steps and things that you can do. I'd encourage you all to sign on to the coalition for green capital letter of support and sign up on the Sierra Club ad up campaign. The bill has not been released from the revisers office yet so we don't have a bill LD number. And we don't have a date scheduled for the hearing. Typically they provide two weeks notice before the hearing. And so we should be able to share that information out once we know. But you can, if you if you want to support the main green bank you can start to draft testimony in support of it or draft a letter to the editor for the local paper in support of it. And that's something that I'm happy to help with if any of you are interested in writing testimony or writing a letter of support. Let me know if there's other groups that you think would want to learn more about this that you could help line up a presentation to. We gave a presentation to Portland Society of architects we've given presentations to bankers and lenders. And we're trying to engage as you know a variety of different industries across Maine. We really benefit everyone in Maine, either as an individual investing in efficiency and clean energy in your own home, or just through the job creation and the local economic benefit. Each year, we spend $4 billion importing fossil fuels from out of state. That's $4 billion a year leaving our state economy. And this transitioning to 100% clean energy can keep literally billions of dollars in our state economy and and recirculate that here locally supporting all these other industries in addition to just the efficiency and clean energy. So please let me know if there's other groups that you would like to engage with this and share it with friends and or family. Here's a couple of additional resources. The Connecticut Green Bank is fantastic. I love their annual report. It gives high level overview of the impacts that they've had but then it gives descriptions of some of their programs and has testimony from some of their customers that they've worked with households that they've worked with. And so I really enjoy that each year. And the Coalition for Green Capital has a bunch of resources, both for the National Climate Bank and and for state level things like what we're doing in Maine. And so, does anyone have any questions for me. I did see one in the chat David and the only other quick thing I'd reiterate is the ad up campaign once, once we do have that printed bill number for the state. We can best update folks through that ad up campaign as things arise or more information comes so I definitely want to encourage you to log on there, but Gary did have a question earlier. Do the various CAP CAP agencies in Maine participate in this clean energy effort. Yeah, I think that they're involved in the weatherization programs for low income households. And I don't know the exact numbers but I want to say that they're working with like five to 10,000 households a year in terms of weatherization. 750 homes, 750,000 homes in Maine, 550,000 households. And so if you're doing 10,000 homes a year, it'll take 55 years to reach every house. And also a lot of times with their weatherization, they're limited to about $6,000 per house so they're just kind of addressing the worst of like the worst problems. And it's not a whole home retrofit. It's not. Typically they're doing weatherization and I know Efficiency Maine has a new low income heat pump program to help fund heat pumps in low income households to help them transition off of propane and heating oil. Again, it's going to be a limited number like the state of Maine doesn't have the money to be able to spend $5,000 or $10,000 on every single house in the state. So we need to drive in private investment and help make the funding affordable. But yeah, no, I mean, certainly great work. I support all the things that the, that the weatherization programs and cap agencies are doing, but it's, it's not the full solution. So I see a question. Where have other state green banks. Oh, here, let me. Let me stop screen sharing. And then we can actually see each other. Where have other state green banks gotten their funding if the national accelerator does not exist yet. So a lot of them in 2010, during the recovery act, after the recession, in the middle of the recession. A lot of them used a portion of the aura funding, the, what is it American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. A lot of them use a portion of that as startup funding. So like that's how the Florida program got funded. That's how the Michigan program got funded. That was a portion of the funding for Connecticut. Connecticut used a mix of different things. They received some investment from the state like I think in the first few years the state of Connecticut put $20 million a year into the state green bank. They've also Connecticut has also tapped into Reggie funding from the regional greenhouse gas initiative. And already, Maine is ahead of most states in terms of making sure that the Reggie funds are used for efficiency and clean energy. And so already those funds are going to efficiency Maine for the for the programs that they run. And then, and then the other thing that Connecticut and other states have used for funding is most electric utilities. They have a portion of the cost that everyone is paying is paying for efficiency programs. And so Connecticut and other states have used some of the funding from this collected by the electric utilities that they're required to invest in efficiency and clean energy programs. And so that's another location that funding has come from in other states. And again, I think that money is directed to efficiency Maine. And so they use it for things like rebates on light bulbs if you're going to Walmart or Home Depot LED light bulbs are like $1 a box. And that's in part due to the electric efficiency programs from from the utilities that Maine is directing. And so those are, those are kind of the key ways that the other existing green banks have been funded that that I'm aware of. Yeah, but that's a great question because yeah, ideally, we can do this regardless of anything, but it just seems like it's, it's so close. We can really line up that federal funding we need to invest in infrastructure. I know there's been a bipartisan push in the past few years for an infrastructure bill. And so I think that this can be part of a larger infrastructure bill to invest in our roads and bridges and airports and all that other important community infrastructure. Any other questions. I, in the chat, but does that again, does anyone else have any. Yeah, go ahead, Gary. I know you're preparing to have individuals testify before a legislation regards to this LD 99 I was wondering if you, or is the legislature amenable to video. Something you want to develop yourself and then get into the legislature is, is there a link for that or is that something that an individual could do if they wanted to. Yeah, so great question. Yeah, so this year. I think all the committees are using zoom. So they're not actually meeting in person at the legislature at all. And I haven't participated in a hearing yet it sounds like I was talking to someone who's been in several committees and it sounds like every committee has slightly different setup. Some are more organized than others. They were telling me that it seems like some committees have never used zoom before, which is kind of hard to believe given that we're nine months into a pandemic and it seems like we've all been using it the whole time. But they are, they are lining up in person like the in person testimony that you normally show up to the committee to provide they're doing over zoom. And, and I don't, I don't think you can pre record a message but you but you can do it in person over zoom. I mean that's great because of the fact that if you used to help me develop some kind of testimony, and I tweak it to my perspective of things. And I can line up in the legislature to be just been in the zoom then may announce my name, and I unmute myself and I go and read my testimony and at least get a recording to the legislation that you know these people over here and J main are very much interested in going forward with this legislation, so so so so that would that would be a great benefit I think for all of us. Yeah. Yeah I know it's interesting because it almost seems like it makes public participation easier. You know, particularly for people up in the county or you know kiddery or you know there's a lot of people that have a long drive to get to Augusta. And, and I think, I think it rolled out last session but they've also made it easier to submit written testimony on the legislature's website, where I think in previous years that was a pretty complex process. And now you can do it through the through the website. I have that link in the chat. I have signed up for two committees, myself I've talked to one thus far and they are still getting organized but if you do email or call that committee secretary or staff person and say you want to testify they should be able to line you up and they are starting to break you into actual time blocks to be on zoom so it's it actually yeah it could be a great thing for public participation. I know I've been to Augusta a few times and sat two hours waiting for a hearing to begin and then it finally starts and then you're waiting another two hours for testimony and it can, it can, you know, it's a full day going to Augusta to give three minutes of testimony for a bill. That's probably some of you have experienced. So I see a question in the chat is green bank funding available to businesses of various sizes, and yes, and small businesses are another really important sector that often don't have access to funding medium and larger businesses, the, you know, Walmart and Hanifords have access to all sorts of funding, and can, and can borrow from banks and lenders, and for smaller businesses that don't have a long track record it can be really difficult to borrow money and for facility improvements and things like this. And so that's, that's another really important sector that the green bank will be working with. There's a separate bill moving forward this session for commercial property assessed clean energy or commercial pace. So it's an important way of funding efficiency and clean energy projects for businesses, and it, it attaches the loan to the property tax bill. And so it, it's a way of secure securing the loan, but if you sell the property, it can be passed on to the next building owner and property assessed clean energy is another like well established program around the country. And it's often led by states that have green banks it's often led by the green bank, but there is a separate bill moving forward this session for commercial pace which which will specifically help businesses. And then, is there a sense of timeline for getting the federal legislation through. It's Congress, it's Washington DC, I don't know. But there's, there's a lot of hope it's after this COVID relief package that they're discussing now that the Biden is working on my understanding is that the infrastructure package is Biden's next priority. But I do not have an inside line to the White House to Congress. The commission for green capital has been working really hard on this. And so it's, it's looking hopeful that it will pass this year. I can, I can say it's not likely to pass in February, but hopefully it would pass by June, other than that I don't know, we'll see. Yeah, anyone else have any, any other questions today, and feel free to unmute yourselves if anyone wants to speak. All right, well, I guess I guess we can wrap up then thank you all for for joining us today. Matt was there anything else that you wanted to add in. No, just please. I do encourage you to sign up for that add up campaign and tell your friends and I think that's going to be the best way to keep up to date with both the federal legislation and the state legislation. Perfect.