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Current Blog Posts
A Double Standard? Debt Financing of Distributed Infrastructure Projects: A Legal Perspective
When a water utility seeks to increase supply to address a growing population in the community which it serves, most states have very clear laws that would allow such a utility to issue revenue bonds…
Three State Programs that Assist Local Capital Planning & Statewide Infrastructure Needs Assessment
The EPA’s 2011 Report to Congress on the Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, which estimated infrastructure capital needs of $384.2 billion over the next 20 years, includes a short line that has stuck…
WaterCARE: Four Common Challenges Facing Water and Wastewater Systems
Earlier this year, the EFC at UNC, in partnership with the Southwest Environmental Finance Center and other members of the Environmental Finance Center Network, started work on WaterCARE (Community Assistance for Resiliency and Excellence in…
Community-Based Social Marketing: Tools for reducing demand through behavior change
In our work with water utilities across the country, the Environmental Finance Center is often asked how a water utility might encourage conservation amongst its customers. Such utilities may be interested in promoting water conservation for…
One Major Thing LBNL’s “Energy Efficiency Program Financing” Technical Brief Doesn’t Tell Us (and Several Surprising Things it Does)
Earlier this week, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) released a technical brief, “Energy Efficiency Program Financing: Where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there.” Financing specifically refers to capital that is…
Financing Energy Efficiency for Municipal Electric Utility Customers in North Carolina
Here at the EFC, we are always looking for ways to support the sustainable financing of energy efficiency for communities around the country, including in our home state of North Carolina. In the Old North…
More Federal Funding Available to Grow Clean Energy Small Businesses
Back in September, the School of Government’s Community and Economic Development in North Carolina and Beyond blog highlighted a new program from US EPA to work with small businesses nationwide to develop and commercialize technologies that…
Six Keys to Improve Your Water Utility’s Credit Rating – A Cheat Sheet
Water and Wastewater utilities receive “credit ratings” just as a private individual has a FICO® score. While organizations like the Fair Isaac Corporation calculate personal credit scores, for entities like local government utilities, the three…