New federal subsidies could reduce U.S. climate emissions by nearly 1 billion tons by 2050

The Biden administration announced Monday that it is awarding $4.3 billion in federal grants to projects in 30 states aimed at spurring clean energy development and other efforts to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The subsidies are among the largest cash grants under the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 law that allocated nearly $400 billion to climate action and the clean energy transition. The timing of the subsidies ensures that this part of President Joe Biden’s environmental legacy will remain intact even if Democrats fail to retain control of the White House or the Senate after the November elections.

The grants will fund 25 projects, including efforts to electrify farm equipment in Minnesota, expand public transportation in Texas and install new electric vehicle charging stations along the Interstate 95 corridor in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to announce another $300 million in climate-related grants for tribes and territories later this summer.

The EPA estimates the projects will reduce the nation’s climate pollution by nearly 1 billion tons through 2050. That’s about the same as cutting the greenhouse gas emissions of 5 million households over 25 years, the agency said in its press release.

“These awards will supercharge America’s climate progress across every sector — from reaching 100 percent clean electricity to curbing super pollutants like methane to harnessing the power of nature on our farms and in our forests to combat climate change,” White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said in a statement. “This is a big deal.”

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, Biden pledged to halve U.S. emissions by 2030, an ambitious goal that energy experts say is out of reach for the country. At a press conference Friday afternoon, Zaidi told reporters that the new pot of money would get the country back on track. According to figures Zaidi provided, the subsidies could ultimately reduce nationwide emissions by about 13 percent from 2005 levels, the base year for the U.S. climate pledge.

Projects vary from state to state, city to city

According to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the 25 grant recipients represented the “crème de la crème” of the more than 300 applicants, who proposed programs that would not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also create jobs and otherwise economically benefit their communities.

“We know that governors and mayors know their communities better than the federal government ever could,” Regan told reporters Friday. “So we relied on their skills to create an application that would deliver the maximum reduction in greenhouse gas pollution. But we also wanted to make sure that we were looking at the diversity across industries, whether it’s transportation, construction, agriculture, energy, electricity, gas.”

Pennsylvania, a key battleground state for Democrats in November, received one of the largest amounts of the grants. The state will get more than $396 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing, electrify buildings and improve energy efficiency, reduce landfill waste, develop carbon capture technologies and build more battery storage.

Minnesota will also receive funding to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and accelerate the electrification of several industries and sectors. The state also plans to use the nearly $200 million it received to restore and protect key carbon sinks, using new technologies for “climate-smart agriculture” and restoring degraded peatlands.

Similarly, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island will use their combined $450 million to install energy-efficient heat pumps in buildings. Other states, such as Illinois and Michigan, will use their funding primarily to build new wind and solar farms and install more battery storage. Illinois received more than $430 million and Michigan received nearly $130 million for those efforts.

North Carolina will lead a $420 million grant awarded to a coalition of conservation groups, including the Nature Conservancy, to conserve, enhance or restore more than 500,000 acres of the state’s coast, forests and farmland, and to conduct other conservation activities in South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

It wasn’t just states that received grant money. Much of the funding went to county and city governments, as well as community organizations and nonprofits.

A regional agency representing several Southern California counties received nearly $500 million, making it the largest recipient of the grants announced Monday. That agency plans to use its funding to electrify commercial fleets in the state and reduce pollution in underserved communities.

“Addressing the climate crisis looks different in every community, from Colorado to Connecticut to Lincoln, Nebraska.”

Two Ohio cities, Cleveland and Painesville, plan to use their nearly $130 million to demolish a century-old coal-fired power plant and install new solar and battery storage systems. And in Texas, the city of Austin will use its $48 million grant to improve public transportation, particularly in underserved, low-income communities, in an effort to reduce reliance on driving. Austin claims the second-highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions of any major U.S. city, with more than half of those emissions related to transportation.

“Addressing the climate crisis looks different in every community, from Colorado to Connecticut to Lincoln, Nebraska,” John Podesta, the White House senior adviser for clean energy innovation and deployment, said Friday. “More bike lanes and public transit may be the best way for one city to reduce emissions, and making a local steel mill more energy efficient may be the best way for another.”

Funding will help protect Biden’s climate legacy

The stocks were announced during a tumultuous month in Washington. In a surprise announcement on Sunday, Biden said he would no longer run for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

By announcing the subsidies now, the Biden administration is at least partially shielding them from rollback if former President Donald Trump wins in November, since the money is already in the hands of local and state governments. Trump has vowed to roll back much of the Biden administration’s climate program if he is re-elected.

Podesta said the EPA’s grants to reduce climate pollution “put state and local governments in the driver’s seat so we as a nation can accelerate our progress toward President Biden’s climate goals.”

Regan was also cautious, but nevertheless optimistic.

“We can’t look too far into the future, because none of us can predict the future,” he said. “What we can talk about is what’s happening now.” The money, he said, would be allocated in the fall and “we know these recipients are ready to receive these dollars. And we’re going to start right away.”

Dylan Baddour, Kiley Bense, Lisa Sorg, Aman Azhar, Dan Gearino, and Liza Gross contributed to this report.