BlogStories of Hope: Investments for a Clean Energy Economy in Appalachia

Ohio and Pennsylvania Awarded Historic EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grants

By July 30, 2024August 6th, 2024No Comments

July 31, 2024

Earlier this month, the monumental CPRG awards were just selected! What’s “CPRG” and why does yet another government acronym matter to you? Read more to find out!

Thanks to funding by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Environmental Protection Agency announced 25 selected applications through the competitive Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program to tackle climate change, create jobs, improve air quality, and advance environmental justice.

The 25 selected applications fund projects in 30 states, including one Tribe, that target reducing greenhouse gas pollution from six sectors:

  • transportation,
  • electric power, 
  • commercial and residential buildings, 
  • industry, 
  • agriculture/ natural and working lands, 
  • and waste and materials management.

When estimates provided by all selected applicants are combined, the proposed projects reduce greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 971 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, roughly the emissions from 5 million average homes’ energy use each year for over 25 years. This is a big deal.

Within our region, applications from Ohio and Pennsylvania were selected with a historic amount of funds that will produce good paying jobs while slashing emissions. This application process brought together government officials, labor leaders, environmenalists, and public health advocates to showcase, as Darrin Kelly of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council put it, “Pollution can no longer be our [region’s] legacy. This [grant] guarantees it.”

Additional Resources:



Ohio


A Cuyahoga County-led partnership, which includes Cuyahoga County and the cities of Cleveland and Painesville, receives a $129 million grant to install solar panels on local landfills, close a coal-fired power plant and return a major brownfield to natural habitat.

The partnership received the entire amount requested in the grant proposal, as the award is four times larger than the next largest grant the county has received since 2011.

The grant will pay for the development of 63 megawatts of solar energy across several sites.

The City of Painesville will begin to replace their old, coal-fired municipal power plant with the deployment of solar panels generating 35 megawatts of power on the site of a former chemical plant. The project also includes 10 megawatts of battery storage.



The grant also includes:

Funding for West Creek Conservancy to establish public trails, natural habitats for migratory birds and access to fishing on the Grant River and Lake Erie.

Funding for 28 megawatts of solar on four landfills in Cuyahoga County and a vacant tract in Garfield Heights.

  • Power generated at the Kolthoff Landfill, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, could provide renewable energy to a group of industries in the area and possibly by the airport directly.
  • The Harvard Landfill that straddles Cleveland and Garfield Heights will be topped with solar panels to generate about 9 megawatts.
  • The Brooklyn Landfill to add another 5.5 megawatts of solar to an existing solar farm on site.

In total, the goal is to eliminate 1 million metric tons of carbon emissions over 25 years by adding this renewable energy generation to the mix. 

Local projects included in the grant are expected to create 60-70 full-time jobs and another 130 construction jobs. The county will use Manufacturing Works, the former WIRE-Net, to provide training.


Pennsylvania


Pennsylvania receives $396 million to cut industrial carbon emissions, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the Commonwealth. This award is the second largest federal investment in the state’s history. 

The funding will be used to form the RISE PA program, where the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Energy Programs Office will issue grants statewide –from $25,000 to $300 million for small-, medium-, and large-scale decarbonization projects at industrial facilities. The DEP expects the funds, which have strong labor standards baked in, to begin flowing at the beginning of early next year in what will likely be a multi-month process of formalizing the application process and executing agreements. 



Thanks to many of our ReImagine Appalachia partners, including PA labor organizations, Keystone Research Center, Ohio River Valley Institute, and the BlueGreen Alliance that provided valuable input that helped shape this program.

The RISE PA program will not apply to transportation or electricity generation. Rather, the grants can be used for a wide array of projects, including:

  • to improve energy efficiency, 
  • directly reduce emissions, 
  • replace carbon-emitting equipment with electric-powered alternatives 
  • or implement carbon capture technology.

The project will deliver the following benefits to reduce GHGs and support communities–

  • Accelerate industrial decarbonization by funding shovel-ready projects at hundreds of facilities. 
  • Reduce GHG emissions by at least 20% at each selected facility for the medium- and large-scale awards.
  • Leverage between $283 million and $973 million in additional private capital for industrial decarbonization projects.
  • Create high-quality jobs by ensuring prevailing wage requirements as established by the U.S. Department of Labor and apprenticeship requirements are met.
  • Improve air quality by reducing hazardous air pollutants, toxins, and other harmful substances.
  • Enhance the physical and economic wellbeing of low-income and disadvantaged communities.
  • Invest in equitable workforce development activities to meet increased job demands.
  • Provide replicable and scalable strategies to reduce GHG emissions in hard-to-abate sectors.

Acting DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley notes, “This grant has the potential to create good-paying union jobs, reduce millions of tons of greenhouse gasses, and increase manufacturing competitiveness in Pennsylvania.” 

As Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stated, “We are going to create jobs and economic opportunity. We are going to lower operating costs for Pennsylvania businesses, and we are going to reduce pollution in our air and water. This is a win-win across the board.”


Takeaways / What’s Next


Projects that were not selected for the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants are encouraged to apply for the EPA’s Community Change Grant, which benefits disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. The grant winners for this program that were already announced represent less than a quarter of the available funds, so there is still time to apply! The deadline to Request Community Change Grants Program Technical Assistance is August 16, 2024check out this blog for more details.


Where Do We Go From Here?


These grants are monumental for Ohio and Pennsylvania. However, we can’t solely rely on these award-based projects to get climate work done.

There were so many much-needed applications from various groups that were not funded. The list of funded projects is inspiring, but it’s also a drop in the bucket for what our communities need, and competitive grants put a lot of our under-resourced communities at a further disadvantage.

In order to make up for the number of projects that were not selected for these funds, we need to spark private investments to capitalize on this moment. This comes in the form of: Green Banks, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFIs), and community foundations (check out a list of regional funders here!).

In addition, check out this great blog post from Columbia Law School, “So Your CPRG Application Didn’t Get Funded” for more opportunities.