Written by Lori Lee
NDG contributor
As part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $27 billion in grants to 68 communities in the United States last month. The funding is part of the larger Inflation Control Act and represents the largest investment in clean energy systems and greenhouse gas reductions in history.
EPA’s Endowment Director David Widowsky said in a September Ethnic Media Service briefing that these regions bear the highest pollution burdens and per capita energy costs, leading to a $27 billion investment. The majority of the cases are reserved for underserved communities, he explained. This funding means economic revitalization for communities that have historically been marginalized and overburdened by pollution. Energy costs can increase by a factor of three to ten times relative to the income of people in these communities.
University of Michigan Vice President Shalanda Baker added at the press conference that the tradition of redlining lives on. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund aims to bring new capital into markets where the transition to renewable energy has been slow. The fund creates community ownership of energy assets, new jobs, and new American business opportunities.
(Nick Schliahin/Unsplash)
The program was established to meet the urgent needs of our nation, Widowski said. Other key goals of the program include increasing the country’s energy independence and competitiveness and lowering energy costs for consumers.
To help as many communities as possible, GGRF is disseminating funds by mobilizing private funds through local banks under the Storage Investment Acceleration Grant Program. Widowski said grant recipients can renovate buildings or fund solar power plants to replace outdated appliances and transportation systems with more efficient ones. It is said that there is Their work improves the health of America’s communities and provides wealth-generating opportunities for individuals and businesses.
The Clean Communities Investment Accelerator and Solar for All programs are each focused on 100% overburdened communities, Widowski explained.
To determine which communities should be considered disadvantaged, the White House Council on Environmental Quality put together a climate justice screening tool using census tract data. Demographic information, availability of low-income housing, and other indicators for planning for disadvantaged communities. Tribal communities are also considered for funding.
When Congress passed the Inflation Control Act of 2022, the government was given a legislative deadline of September 30, 2024, to obligate $27 billion. Widowski said the EPA then went through an extensive evaluation process to identify and enroll grantees, finishing a month and a half early.
Two years ago, on his first day in office, Joe Biden signed executive orders promoting racial equity and support for underserved communities, Dr. Baker explained. In seven days, the president will sign a landmark climate change order that includes the Justice 40 initiative, which promises 40% of benefits to disadvantaged communities. The order required all federal agencies to consider the barriers that communities face in accessing federal resources.
Baker said that when more than 6% of a household’s income goes toward energy needs, it becomes an energy burden, while one in three Americans is energy insecure, according to Energy Information Administration data. . This means that people are faced with decisions every day between eating and heating and cooling their homes. When Americans start making unsafe decisions about heating their homes and living in unhealthy summer temperatures, the result can be home fires and deaths.
More than 52% of African American households and 47% of Latino households are energy insecure, and many Native American households have no access to electricity at all. These Americans are more likely to suffer some of the health effects associated with living around fossil fuel production.
The program is designed to bring access to clean energy to overburdened communities and provide more clean energy across the grid by replacing equipment that runs on fossil fuels with electric machines. Baker said. This is aimed at cleaning up communities that are experiencing disproportionate impacts related to our current dependence on fossil fuels. This is especially true for low-income communities of color, especially Black communities, whose neighborhoods have a high concentration of fossil power generation. Baker added that white American homeowners are more likely to have access to rooftop solar power than black American homeowners at the same income level.
Stacey Abrams is part of an organization made possible by GGRF. After presenting the Rewiring America agenda to the DeSoto, Georgia, community at a recent town hall meeting, residents were given the opportunity to sign.
“Words cannot express how grateful we are to Stacey Abrams and Rewiring America for bringing this program to such a small town,” said Rosemary Jones, local project manager for Revitalizing DeSoto. spoke. DeSoto, “Georgia is a town where everyone there knows each other… They don’t provide rural families with any upfront costs to replace broken equipment in their homes.” I’m just proud to be a part of this team. I can truly say that everyone is a winner with this project.”
Other grant recipients are making good use of their tax dollars by developing and financing green products under this program. These include the Coalition for Green Capital, Clement United Fund, and Power Forward Communities. Visit EPA.gov/GGRF to find contact information for all 68 grant recipients under the GGRF.
