The Biden-Harris administration has granted Michigan a $3 million planning grant to develop innovative strategies aimed at tackling climate pollution and building clean energy economies across the state.
“We know that tackling the climate crisis demands a sense of urgency to protect people and the planet,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Michael Regan, said in an EPA press release. “President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is a historic opportunity to provide communities across the country with the resources they need to protect people from harmful climate pollution and improve our economy."
The funds were made available through the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, created by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the release stated. Michigan will use the grant to update and expand its existing climate action plan and engage low-income and disadvantaged communities throughout the state.
Later this year, Michigan will be able to compete for an additional $4.6 billion to implement initiatives included in the plans, using grant, loan, and tax provisions secured by Biden’s historic legislation, the release stated.
These plans will include greenhouse gas emissions inventories, emissions projections and reduction targets, economic, health, and social benefits, plans to leverage other sources of federal funding, workforce needs, and future government staffing and budget needs.
This comes as the Inflation Reduction Act includes historic funding to combat climate change while creating good-paying jobs and advancing environmental justice, according to the release. The announcement builds on the $550 million announced in February for the EPA’s new Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program as well as the $100 million announced earlier this year for environmental justice grants to support underserved and overburdened communities.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will also award nearly $27 billion to leverage private capital for clean energy and clean air investments across the country, the release stated.
