EPA Issues Awards for Crucial Clean Energy Finance Program

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the award winners for two of three grant competitions it held last year to distribute funds from a $27 billion financing program created by the Inflation Reduction Act known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). This is a first-of-its-kind effort to combat climate change, advance environmental justice and accelerate the transition to an equitable clean energy future. 

“This is an unprecedented investment in communities that have been overlooked for far too long,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Neighborhoods and regions around the country are primed to see significant benefits; from new jobs and business growth to notable energy savings, putting money back in the pockets of hard-working people.”  

“It’s a sizeable down payment on cleaner air, improved livelihoods and a safer climate,” Bapna said.  

The GGRF aims to transform how communities around the country access finance for low- and zero-emission projects. It will help rapidly deploy clean energy projects to areas that, without these investments, could be left behind in the clean energy transition.   

“We congratulate EPA on reaching such a historic milestone for this critical financing program which targets almost 70% of funds to low-income and disadvantaged communities,” said Sylvia Chi, Senior Policy Analyst at Just Solutions and the founder of the GGRF Equity and Governance Best Practices Alliance. “We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the GGRF awardees to ensure this program delivers significant and tangible benefits to the communities across our country that bear a disproportionate burden from pollution and climate change.” 

EPA’s awards today are in two of the three major GGRF programs:  

• A $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund that aims to help transform the clean energy financing market, including by providing financing to individuals and families, nonprofits, businesses, community lenders and others for reducing pollution across all sectors with a priority focus on buildings, transportation and distributed power generation;  
• a $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, a community lending program to expand the clean finance ecosystem through community lenders with the experience, expertise and relationships needed to deploy capital in underserved markets; and, 

 Awards are yet to be announced by EPA in the third GGRF program: 

• A $7 billion Solar for All program to deploy residential and community solar, integrated storage and cover related upgrades in low-income and disadvantaged communities.  

The GGRF will catalyze billions of dollars of additional public and private co-investment in clean energy projects nationwide and help modernize the U.S. financial system by transforming ‘green’ investments into ‘mainstream’ investments and building a more equitable clean energy future with significant benefits for underserved communities.  

A blog on the topic will be posted here, and here is a graphic explaining the GGRF and its three funding streams.  

NRDC(Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Visit us atwww.nrdc.organd follow us on Twitter @NRDC.