US Environmental Protection Agency awards $4.3 billion to climate change projects

The US Environmental Protection Agency awarded $4.3 billion from its Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program on July 22. The money will help implement 25 projects across the country that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Many of the selected projects will use chemistry and materials science to cut carbon emissions, with the biggest areas being energy, transportation, and agriculture. Alaska and New England, for example, will get a total of around $490 million for electric heat pumps to replace residential oil- or gas-fired furnaces. At least seven projects support electrification of passenger or freight vehicles, and seven more involve climate-smart farming or habitat restoration.

Some of the projects include resilience components to insulate communities and business from extreme weather events brought on by climate change. “Today, my Administration is empowering local communities across 30 states to cut pollution and fight the climate crisis—from curbing greenhouse gas emissions in Pennsylvania to flood-proofing infrastructure in North Carolina,” President Joe Biden says in a statement.

The projects include three plans to reduce methane emissions, from landfills, mines, and petroleum production. In a separate funding opportunity open until Aug. 26, the administration is offering $850 million in financial and technical support to companies and other stakeholders to cut methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. Both programs deploy funds from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

On July 23, the White House followed up with a summit on detecting and reducing emissions of what it calls climate super pollutants: methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons. Announcements at the summit include a launch plan for a NASA satellite that will map methane leaks as well as funding and EPA mandates for phasing out hydrofluorocarbons. The adipic acid maker Ascend Performance Materials says upgrades have all but eliminated N₂O emissions at its plant in Florida, and the engineering firm ClimeCo has announced a trio of emission-control installations at industrial plants that will come online by early 2025. Combined, the administration says, the two companies’ efforts will cut US industrial emissions of N₂O in half.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is already delivering on its promises, and today’s announcement of funding for projects in 30 states is a prime example,” says Holly Reuter, director of climate and clean energy policy implementation at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.

The US funding builds on planning grants that the EPA gave out in an earlier round of the same program, in which 46 states got $3 million each to develop project plans, the Clean Air Task Force says. Another $112 million in planning funds went to cities, US territories, and Native American nations, tribes, and bands. “We applaud EPA for creating, implementing, and executing on this program in such a short period of time and are encouraged by the amount of interest the grant program received,” Reuter says.