Some Timely Resources on the Inflation Reduction Act

A recent poll shows support for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) remains strong, as the investments from the historic law begin to flow to states and communities. That makes sense since the IRA contains $369 billion for clean energy and climate justice programs alone! But, like a lot of things in life, it is overwhelming to think about where to start taking advantage of all that opportunity.

That’s why our team here at Michigan LCV is dedicated to feeding our readers some digestible bites of IRA info and our Inflation Reduction Act web page is a great resource to find ways to plug in and educate your own networks. Now that we are one month into the new year, we curated a list of some of the best new tools as well as some new programs (especially for environmental justice) announced by the Biden Administration – check it out below.

Justice40 Funding Finder, Equitable and Just National Climate Platform: The funding finder courtesy of our partners at Equitable and Just National Climate Platform includes programs at the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Interior and Agriculture that fall into one or more of the seven Justice40 categories but were not on the August 2022 list of Justice40 programs for those agencies. 

EPA Environmental Justice Grants: The EPA recently announced $100 million for environmental justice grants to address health impacts in overburdened communities around the country. Information about these grants and how to apply can be found here. 

Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program: The EPA created this program to give financial support to organizations working on local environmental or public health challenges in their communities. There is a call about pre-application assistance tomorrow from 6-7:30pm, you can join with this link.

Department of Energy Guidance for Block Grants and Home Energy Rebates: DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program opened up applications for $430 million in formula grant funding thanks to the Infrastructure law. DOE also released a Request for Information seeking input on $9 billion for the Home Energy Rebate Program thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (so that state and tribal governments can get funding to households for home energy improvements.

Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities Program: The DOE announced up to $50 million to support communities transition to clean energy systems by connecting local governments (and community groups, utilities, and others) to the best tools and technologies to make a transition. 

Electric Vehicle Funding Finder: The Electrification Coalition created this EV funding finder that can help find funding sources and incentives for various electric vehicle programs, and includes tailored approaches depending on who is interested in the funding (city, school, business, individual, etc.).

New Report “Powering Toward 100% Clean Power:” Evergreen Action, together with NRDC, authored a key paper outlining a roadmap towards 90 percent clean power by 2030 and 100 percent clean electricity by 2035, building on the passage of the IRA.