How to future-proof federal climate policy? Go local.
With an upended election season, the Biden administration’s signature climate policies could come under threat, but state and local action may be harder to disrupt. In Pittsburgh today, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Michael Regan is set to announce $4.3 billion in pollution reduction grants to 25 communities across 30 states.
The awards will fund locally devised emissions reduction projects ranging from climate-smart agriculture in Nebraska and wildfire mitigation in Montana to electrifying heavy duty trucking in New Jersey. The Biden administration is making a renewed push to publicize its climate and infrastructure policies that have benefited many Republican-led states.
“We see today the block-by-block game-changers for climate, block-by-block job creation that will lift up the middle class, block-by-block delivery of environmental justice,” said White House national climate advisor Ali Zaidi on a call with reporters. “This is what it looks like for the American people to come out ahead.”
Fall funding
As with its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion EPA program aimed at establishing a nationwide network of community-based green lenders, the agency said it will allocate the funds by early fall to reduce the chances of a new Congress or administration clawing them back.
A first phase of the pollution reduction program awarded $250 million in planning grants to help communities develop climate action plans. The 25 projects sharing in the $4.3 billion in implementation grants were chosen from over 300 applications requesting a total of $33 billion, Regan said, reflecting widespread demand.
The program is expected to cut more than 1,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Place-based
The projects reflect a diversity of climate resilience approaches being modeled across the country.
In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, a $396 million grant to its Department of Environmental Protection will focus on small- to large-scale industrial decarbonization projects. Alaska’s $38 million grant will help 50 coastal communities replace residential oil burning systems with heat pumps. A coalition of agencies in New Haven, Conn., will use their grant to develop geothermal energy to power Union train station and surrounding homes.
North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia are teaming up to sequester carbon through coastal wetlands, peatlands, and forests. A four-state coalition led by New Jersey will use nearly $150 million to install EV charging for heavy duty vehicles along the busy I-95 Corridor and to train workforces.
Nebraska’s $307 million grant will target agricultural climate-smart agriculture and reduce waste from livestock. The EPA’s approach, said Lincoln, Neb. mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, “underscores the important role of local governments in addressing climate change while enhancing access to affordable housing, improving public health and reducing disparities.”
