EPA Launches New Clearinghouse for Environmental Finance

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Clearinghouse for Environmental Finance (Clearinghouse), an online database of land, air, and water information. This new Clearinghouse catalogues available funding, financing, and instructional resources to aid communities in their efforts to improve environmental conditions. The Office of Policy collaborated with the Office of Water to launch the new Clearinghouse.

“EPA has created a one-stop shop to make it easier for communities to access available funding and other agency resources,” said U.S. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Today’s action builds on my commitment to tear down the silos between programs within the agency so that we can be more effective in addressing the environmental burdens that communities face.”

The Administrator announced his commitment to community-based environmentalism during his speech at the Nixon Library in early September, where he charged the Office of Policy with helping to advance those goals. The Clearinghouse expands on the concept of the original Water Finance Clearinghouse, launched in 2017, that served as the one-stop shop for communities researching ways to fund and finance their water infrastructure needs to assist in local decision-making. The new Clearinghouse includes over 1,800 funding and financing opportunities and information resources from EPA’s air, water and land programs. Communities can use this system to access information on funding and financing opportunities for environmental projects as well as financial research, such as case studies, white papers, and webinars.