It’s summertime sadness in August — historically the worst month for the US stock market. But here’s a potential cure: Eat your greens.

Clean energy stocks gave portfolios some of 2021’s greenest days. Since then, they’ve taken a backseat in investors’ minds, but early signs point to the narrative coming back to relevance.

• A $1t infrastructure bill is making its way through the White House, and $7.5b in spending is allocated towards electric vehicle charging stations.
• Countries around the globe made efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage (i.e. EU implementing carbon taxes on major polluters).

Green means go: Regardless of whether these initiatives can curb the worst effects of climate change, they sent energy stocks surging in 2020 — then crashing at the beginning of 2021. Two Electric vehicle charging stocks are at the front of this change:

• Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) bottomed out in May — and is up ~12% since reporting earnings last Thursday.
• Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) jolted up 13.5% in the second half of July.

But analysts think the benefits of the infrastructure bill are already priced into the stocks, leaving little room for upside. Alix Partners (via CNBC) believes it would take $50b to build a network of EV charging stations to serve the US’ EV goals by 2030.

The ETF way: Investing in individual EV charging stocks is risky but there’s another way to play — the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (NASDAQ:ICLN).

• ICLN
  gives investors access to both EV charging stocks and companies powering the green energy narrative.
• Top three holdings: Vestas Wind Systems (CPH:VWS), Orsted (CPH:ORSTED), and Enphase Energy Inc (NASDAQ:ENPH).
• 5-year return: 22.43% annualized (compared to the S&P 500’s 17.35%).

The ETF isn’t purely focused on electric vehicles — holding American utility stocks like Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL), which could benefit from the bills’ investments in the utility sector.