President Biden had ambitious plans, with the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), to rebuild America’s aging infrastructure and revitalize our economy by fighting climate change through creating green jobs, reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and championing environmental justice.
In the scant few years since the passage of these monumental laws, changes are already taking root. For example, in Maryland, funding is flowing to various sectors of the state — private and public — for grid modernization, transportation planning, funding green banks, and cleaning polluted air, and all of it in the service of environmental justice.
Funding Private Owners
In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced via its IRA funded Green and Resilient Retrofit Program that it was providing grants and loan commitments of nearly $2 million to property owners in Maryland participating in HUD-Assisted Multifamily Housing programs for climate resilience and energy and water efficiency improvements. These improvements include installation of heat-wave resilient cool roofs and fire-resistant roofs, on-site solar power systems, insulation and air sealing, heat pumps, energy efficient windows, and similar upgrades. Additional funding will be made available in the future to enable building owners to continue to invest in technologies and energy systems to reduce energy costs and GHG emissions to make properties healthier and safer for low-income residents.
Funding Non-Profits
Climate Access Fund, a non-profit green bank, was, in August 2023, awarded a $100,000 Energizing Rural Communities Prize to work with on-the-ground partners to expand community solar sites to benefit low-income households in Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties of western Maryland. This prize was part of a $1 billion Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas Program created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations funded by the IRA.
Funding the State
Federal funds from the IRA (and BIL), however, are not just for individuals and entities. The State of Maryland is also set to receive $8.7 million to modernize the power grid from the BIL funded Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant to “improve the resilience and reliability of the power grid, critical infrastructure, and essential services, especially in disadvantaged and frontline communities.” The State has said that the funds will be “used to invest in carbon-neutral energy technologies that can help the state meet [GHG] reduction goals” and for clean energy workforce development.
The Maryland Department of Environment also received $497,861 in IRA funding in July 2023 to develop a comprehensive, community-driven strategy to identify and combat air pollutants in the low-income, minority communities of Cheverly, Curtis Bay and Turner Station. These historically underserved areas have all experienced environmental and health disparities due to air pollution at disproportionate levels compared to other neighborhoods. MDE “will work with community partners to install a hyper-local network of sensors to monitor air quality in these communities, and use data collected and community recommendations to implement pollution exposure and risk reduction measures like trainings, action plans to mitigate pollution, and community workforce development groups.” Redressing the harms to the communities of Cheverly, Curtis Bay and Turner Station is critical to advancing environmental justice.
Funding Local Jurisdictions
Even local jurisdictions are eligible to receive BIL funding. Under the BIL’s Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund program, administered by FEMA, Maryland will receive a portion of “$50 million in capitalization grants to help communities reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters.” These capitalization grants are low-interest loans to local communities to help local jurisdictions fund on the ground “hazard mitigation projects that build community climate resilience.” Envisioned projects include flood control measures, zoning changes and land-use planning changes for climate change mitigation, and required adoption of resilient building codes.
Further, the City of Baltimore, another local jurisdiction, under the BIL funded Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation will receive $2 million to plan the redesign (or removal) of a highway spur caused by the construction of US 40/Franklin-Mulberry Expressway. When this expressway was constructed in 1975, historically Black communities — comprising 971 homes and 62 businesses — were demolished, displacing more than 1,500 people. This project will reconnect the separated communities and redress the “inequities and improv[e] safety, access, opportunity, and innovation in West Baltimore.”
BIL and IRA: More to Come
The initial BIL and IRA funds disbursed in Maryland thus far are varied in scope and reach, and are much needed to support efforts to address climate change and advance climate justice in the state. While this initial effort is to be applauded, more work must continue to ensure anthropogenic GHG emissions are reduced, and especially, effort must be focused on dismantling systems that have disproportionately directed the impacts of climate change on low-income communities and communities of color who are the least responsible for, and who can least bear, the burdens of these impacts. The funding support of the BIL and IRA plants seeds of hope that fighting climate change in a just and equitable manner is possible—just look at Maryland.
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Sandy Ma | October 3, 2023
President Biden had ambitious plans, with the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), to rebuild America’s aging infrastructure and revitalize our economy by fighting climate change through creating green jobs, reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and championing environmental justice. In the scant few years since the passage of these monumental laws, changes are already taking root. For example, in Maryland, funding is flowing to various sectors of the state — private and public — for grid modernization, transportation planning, funding green banks, and cleaning polluted air, and all of it in the service of environmental justice.
James Goodwin | October 2, 2023
If a tree stands in the forest, and there’s no economist around to tabulate its benefits to humans, do those benefits still exist? For government agencies, the answer has long been, “No.” But the Biden administration is poised to change that.
James Goodwin | September 20, 2023
Last month, the Biden administration rolled out the latest piece of its comprehensive Modernizing Regulatory Review initiative: a proposed guidance on how to account for “ecosystem services” in regulatory analysis. As I explained in my comments, if implemented well, this guidance will reinforce the administration’s broader efforts to reprogram an important step in the rulemaking process known as regulatory analysis so that it provides a fairer and fuller picture of the impacts of planned rules.
Sandy Ma | September 19, 2023
Net zero, or carbon neutral, policies are changing the discussions around reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But, even with the wide adoption of the idea, questions remain. How much does the public understand about net zero? How is the policy defined, and what are its goals? Most significantly, is it addressing climate justice?
Daniel Farber | September 14, 2023
This week, the D.C. Circuit hears three cases challenging the use of federal regulations to push adoption of electric vehicles and to allow California to forge a path toward zero-emission cars. If all three cases go badly, the regulatory system would be disabled from playing a role in this area. This would be a huge setback, though there are reasons to think that it would only delay, rather than prevent, the transition to clean cars.
Daniel Farber | September 12, 2023
In three weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court starts its 2023 Term. There are two blockbuster cases on the docket. In one case, the issue is whether to overrule the Chevron case, which has been foundational to administrative law for the past four decades. In the other, the issue is agency power to sanction violations of the law. Given the Court’s conservative supermajority, there’s a real threat to the power of agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue regulations and enforce the law.
Marcha Chaudry | September 7, 2023
Picture a food system where the responsibility for environmental disasters related to industrial agriculture no longer falls on the shoulders of taxpayers or small-scale farmers. Instead, it places the onus exactly where it should be — on the corporations and industrial operators who are reaping massive profits from the factory farming model. The tide is turning, and it’s high time for these corporations to take responsibility for the system they've created.
Joshua Briggs | September 5, 2023
In the coming years, key decisions that will greatly impact state efforts to address climate change will be made by agencies that the public often thinks very little about. Public utility commissions (PUCs) are state agencies that regulate energy markets. They set electricity prices, plan energy resource development, and oversee the utility providers within their states. For decades, these agencies have advanced an energy policy that is informed by a straightforward need to provide dependable electricity to consumers at fair rates.
Federico Holm, James Goodwin | August 24, 2023
When French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States nearly 200 years ago, he famously marveled at the degree and diversity of the American people’s civic engagement. Through a recent, little-noticed guidance, the Biden administration is now working to further infuse this unique tradition into one of our nation’s most important governing institutions: the federal regulatory system. The White House guidance’s recommendations will be essential for empowering ordinary people to shape the policies we care about, whether it’s keeping our drinking water clean or protecting our wallets against predatory banks. Despite this, the regulatory system is not yet achieving its full democratic potential.