The Environmental Protection Agency is issuing $20 billion in grants under a program reducing greenhouse gas emissions in disadvantaged communities – allocating the majority of funds that were obligated under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The announcement will be made Thursday by Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan in Charlotte, North Carolina, in an effort to tout the impacts of the Biden administration’s historic climate investments. The applicants receiving funding will operate under two programs within the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created by the IRA. Eight non-profit organizations were picked for the two competitions, with $14 billion and $6 billion allocated to each program.
According to Regan, the nonprofit organizations will use the funding to direct capital toward projects such as putting solar on small businesses, electrifying affordable housing, and providing loans for families to purchase electric vehicles.
“When President Biden and I made the largest investment in our nation’s history to address the climate crisis and to build a clean energy economy, we made sure that every community would be able to participate and benefit,” Harris said in a written statement. “The grantees announced today will help ensure that families, small businesses, and community leaders have access to the capital they need to make climate and clean energy projects a reality in their neighborhoods.”
House Republicans had sought to repeal a number of provisions within the IRA, including the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. However, the statutory deadline to obligate these funds is September 30, and with grantees selected for the majority of the program’s money ahead of the deadline, it will likely prevent Republicans from rolling back the larger half of the program if the party takes back Congress or the White House.
The grants will be issued under two competitions. The first one is the National Clean Investment Fund, which will establish financing institutions that will aim to fund clean technology projects across the country, in hopes of mobilizing private investment into the projects. The awardees include the nonprofit organizations Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities.
The other program, the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, would establish hubs that provide funding and technical assistance to lenders to help deploy clean energy projects. Some of these projects would include the building of net-zero buildings and emissions-free transportation projects within low-income communities.
Each of the selectees can provide up to $10 million per community lender to fund these projects and technical assistance of up to $1 million for each lender. The selected applicants include nonprofit groups Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, Justice Climate Fund, Appalachian Community Capital, and Native CDFI Network.
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The programs will fund projects reducing or avoiding GHG emissions by up to 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year, equivalent to the emissions of nearly 9 million passenger vehicles.
The programs will invest $4 billion within rural communities and $1.5 billion for tribal communities to reduce emissions. And according to administration officials, the funds are expected to be matched with seven dollars in private investment for every dollar contributed by the federal government – turning $20 billion of public funds into $150 billion of both public and private investment.
