Special Briefing on Climate Change, Federal Aid and State and Local Strategies

Three days after President Biden signed the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, panelists discuss the role of climate change in state and local finance budgeting, as well as the role the federal government may play under the bill and other measures proposed by the Biden Administration. This special briefing features a panel of experts, including Tim Coffin, director of sustainability, Breckinridge Capital Advisors in Boston; Hughey Newsome, chief financial officer for Wayne County, Michigan; Emily Robare, vice president and credit research analyst, PIMCO Municipals; and Nora Wittstruck, director-ESG Lead for US Public Finance, S&P Global.

 Notable Quotes: 

“For example, when oil was trending at negative dollars per barrel during the onset of the pandemic, we moved ratings for Alaska and Wyoming, because of their reliance on severance taxes that fund their budgets from the oil and gas sector,” Nora Wittstruck. 

“Our built environment, our communities, our cities, were built for a different time period where we weren’t dealing with temperature increasing the way that it is,” Emily Robare. 

“The county did receive $340M of ARPA money, and we just reported to the County Commision and made public our intent to bring forth specific initiatives to fund the sustainability office. If those efforts are approved by our Commission, we will be able to launch a dedicated sustainability office,” Hughey Newsome. 

“Climate can magnify the existing credit issues, particularly for distressed communities, and can really become what we would recognize as a competing fiscal demand,” Tim Coffin. 

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Special Briefing is published by the Volcker Alliance, as part of its Public Finance initiatives, and Penn IUR. The views expressed on this podcast are those of the panelists and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Volcker Alliance or Penn IUR.