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It鈥檚 not easy being green.

But a new investment center, officials say, will help bridge gaps in New Mexicans鈥� access to clean energy.

Colloquially known as a 鈥済reen bank,鈥� officials say the nonprofit New Mexico Climate Investment Center is a mechanism for channeling federal, private and other public dollars into clean energy projects that may not otherwise be fully funded.

鈥淭his gives you the accountability, while also giving you that nimble, flexible, strategic, quick turnaround that New Mexicans really are hungry for,鈥� Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a Friday news conference. 鈥淭his is the only vehicle that鈥檚 really going to, frankly, put that on lightning speed.鈥�

Among the federal dollars the center is aiming to bring in is between $50 and $70 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding.

Officials say the center will focus on bridging energy projects financing gaps in several areas, including in rural, tribal and low-income communities.

Generally, many people in the latter spend a significant part of their income on energy, said Beth Beloff, founder and executive director of the Coalition of Sustainable Communities New Mexico, which established the investment center.

鈥淭he Climate Investment Center aims to alleviate these burdens through programs that increase access to energy efficiency, rooftop solar ownership, solar lease programs, financing for community solar, to further drive down those subscription costs for low-income households,鈥� she said.

The investment center was established over the summer and recently was provisionally made a federal 5013. Both moves come after the failure of Senate Bill 169 during this year鈥檚 session, legislation that would have established the center and set aside $20 million in state funding for it.

But Beloff said the Coalition of Sustainable Communities New Mexico 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 wait for another legislative session to try to push through a bill,鈥� citing federal funding opportunities that would have been lost by the time the center was established by going that route.

Beloff noted the $20 million that SB 169 would have provided is still needed for the center鈥檚 operation, and Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) said Friday that lawmakers are 鈥渁ll in on our side鈥� to make that appropriation happens during the upcoming session.

Roughly half a dozen people turned out to Friday鈥檚 news conference to criticize New Mexico鈥檚 recent efforts at investing in hydrogen as a source of energy, holding long, yellow banners reading such things as 鈥淚nvest In Renewables.鈥�

Alejandr铆a Lyons, coalition coordinator for New Mexico No False Solutions, which is a coalition of environmental justice groups, said her group aimed to 鈥渕ake sure that no investments for this investment center go into hydrogen.鈥�

But Beloff said the objective of the investment center is to closely follow the language of SB 169, specifically referencing a line that the center would invest in projects that include 鈥渙ther renewable sources of energy that replenish within a human lifetime鈥� 鈥� language she said was shorthand to exclude fossil fuel-related funding, to include hydrogen from methane.