The Biden administration on Wednesday announced new competitive grants totaling $4.6 billion that states, cities and tribes can apply for to reduce the planet-warming pollution that is fueling the climate crisis.
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which will be managed through the Environmental Protection Agency, is a second and larger tranche of funding in a $5 billion program that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The first went to help states and cities develop climate action plans. Some states, including Georgia, used those funds to develop their first-ever climate plan.
In the initiative announced Wednesday, states, cities and tribes will have a lot of flexibility in how they design projects and apply for funding, though they need to demonstrate a proposed project reduces planet-warming pollution and boosts job creation and health benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities.
White House senior adviser John Podesta said the grants give states and cities a “unique opportunity to think big and to think creatively about how they want to act on climate.”
“The program is intentionally broad in scope to give states tribes territories and cities, the flexibility they need to design their clean energy future,” Podesta told reporters on a media call, adding applicants could put the money towards making school buildings greener, establishing new clean energy projects, or updating building energy codes.
Four states – Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and South Dakota – turned down the initial EPA planning grants for the funding, which restricts them from applying for the larger batch of money. However, EPA administrator Michael Regan said cities within those states can and have applied for the funding themselves.
“Big metropolitan areas like Fort Lauderdale and Miami – they are in the game, they are preparing to…
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