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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration is seeking $189 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funding to help implement the state’s first climate action plan.
The proposal, submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in late March, would establish a statewide fund to help electrify government fleets, retrofit public buildings, and install solar generation on city, county and state properties.
State agencies and local governments would be invited to apply for grants covering 100% of project costs in areas identified as local-income and disadvantaged. Elsewhere, grants would cover half of project costs, with the rest eligible for a subsidized, revolving loan program.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority chose to focus on direct, government investments because it’s an approach they think can achieve quick and substantial impacts without needing to cause widespread behavior changes in a state where public opinion is divided on policy actions to address climate change.
“Governments really control significant assets in terms of fleets and building stock across Ohio,” said Brooke White, an air quality evaluation and planning supervisor with the Ohio EPA.
Ohio is among 45 states and nearly 70 metropolitan areas competing for a share of up to $4.6 billion in federal funding as part of the U.S. EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, which has already distributed almost half a billion dollars to participating states and metro areas to develop or refine climate action plans.
That initial round of funding prompted Ohio to produce its first statewide climate action plan. The Priority Resilience Plan identified transportation electrification as the highest priority strategy for cutting emissions, followed by renewable electricity generation and building energy efficiency.
Electric power generation is Ohio’s largest greenhouse gas emissions sector, emitting 28% of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the plan. Transportation comes in second at 26%. And direct fossil fuel emissions from buildings account for one-fourth of the total, although almost all electricity produced in the state winds up being used in buildings.
The plan also notes various measures that can help cut emissions from different sources, with transportation and buildings being a major focus. A more comprehensive plan will be due next year.
“The plan is the first statewide step for Ohio to reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate change,” said Nolan Rutschilling, managing director of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.
States that submitted climate plans were invited to compete for implementation grants. Criteria include substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and community benefits, particularly for low-income and disadvantaged communities. Policies and programs should also complement other funding sources. And they should be appropriate for scaling up across multiple jurisdictions.
Under the proposal, state agencies and local governments could apply for money to purchase electric vehicles or install or repair charging stations. Building projects could include things like adding rooftop solar or upgrading lighting or HVAC systems. Efficiency upgrades are “not the hottest topic, but they are sort of the biggest bang for your buck,” White said.
The state’s application estimates the transportation projects would avoid the equivalent of more than 4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. From 2025 through 2050, cumulative emissions reductions would exceed 32 million metric tons. The program also would provide technical assistance to agencies, counties and cities.
The grant program would direct 60% of its funding to low-income and disadvantaged communities. Other benefits for those areas would include improvements in air quality, as well as added jobs in fields related to electric vehicles, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
“We are not planning just environmental benefits. We are also creating socioeconomic benefits and building a workforce for market transformation,” said Laura Quiceno Waltero, an environmental specialist with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, speaking at the Ohio State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Institute last month in Columbus.
Another expected benefit: Lower energy bills can free up funds to provide better services overall for communities, “which is where we want their dollars going,” White said.
A 2022 report by Scioto Analysis for the Ohio Environmental Council and Power a Clean Future Ohio estimated climate change impacts would increase budget needs for the state’s local governments between $1.8 and $5.9 billion per year by midcentury.
Ohio’s emphasis on transportation and buildings is in line with other states’ priority climate action plans, according to an April 11 analysis from RMI, ClimateXChange and the Evergreen Collaborative.
The 47 plans submitted by states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia included descriptions of 186 measures to address transportation emissions. Colorado and North Dakota were the only states that did not highlight transportation, the analysis found. And all 47 plans had at least one measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. Plans generally emphasized voluntary actions, with few including possible regulatory measures.
Ohio’s proposal has received enthusiastic support from environmental advocates in the state.
“We all need to be working hand-in-hand to bring more federal investment to our state,” said Crystal Davis, the senior Midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. She spoke on a panel about environmental, health and legal justice at the Ohio State Bar Association program.
The proposal for building efficiency is somewhat limited by its focus on public buildings, noted Rutschilling, of the Ohio Environmental Council. Yet he applauded the focus on benefits for low-income and disadvantaged communities, which will bear the brunt of climate change impacts. “We also appreciate the workforce development components, particularly the focus on job creation in Appalachia,” he said.
Power a Clean Future Ohio has already been working with local governments in Ohio on projects to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions. So far, 50 local governments are members. Ohio’s proposed program “could be transformative if done in a transparent and bottom-up approach” that lets communities set priorities based on their needs, said Joe Flarida, executive director for the organization.
“Resilience funding is climate funding, and it’s also smart city planning,” Flarida said. Yet, he added, “local governments are just the start of this work. It’s the tip of the iceberg.”
The U.S. EPA is expected to announce awards in July.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Global electric vehicle sales will hit a new record this year, and prices will be comparable to gasoline-powered cars by 2030, the International Energy Agency predicts. (Guardian)
ALSO: The United Auto Workers’ win at a Tennessee Volkswagen factory sets up another push next month at an Alabama Mercedes-Benz factory — and from there to auto factories in Georgia and South Carolina. (Politico; AL.com; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)
CLIMATE:
SOLAR:
NUCLEAR: A new report questions whether increasingly extreme weather could threaten the safety or viability of aging nuclear power plants. (Yale Environment 360)
PIPELINES:
GRID:
INDUSTRY: A Minnesota startup company wants to help customers convert diesel engines to burn ammonia, a potential climate solution whose benefits hinge on how the chemical is produced. (Energy News Network)
Electric vehicle factories are booming in the Southeast. Soon, unions could be too.
Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Volkswagen plant made history last week when 73% of its workers voted to join the United Auto Workers. It’s a big victory for the UAW in the historically hard-to-organize Southeast, and a win for two top Biden administration priorities: increasing union labor and domestic EV manufacturing.
“The union has broken the glass ceiling that unions could not organize in the South,” Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus who studies labor issues at the University of California, Berkeley, told E&E News. “This could become a forerunner for the role that the UAW and unions will play in the transition to EVs.”
The UAW last year secured higher wages and other worker benefits from the Big Three automakers, and after that set its sights on EV makers that have started popping up in the South. Next up, the UAW will push for a union at an Alabama Mercedes-Benz factory that recently started making EVs, as well as a nearby EV battery plant. The UAW says so far, a “supermajority” of workers at those plants back a union.
John Logan, labor professor at San Francisco State University, told Reuters that Mercedes is fighting the union effort far more aggressively than VW did. But if the UAW succeeds at unionizing Mercedes, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see elections at Hyundai, Honda and Toyota over the next several months,” he said.
Tesla, BMW, and Nissan plants are also targeted as part of the union’s $40 million organizing campaign. And while E&E News notes the UAW doesn’t have plans to unionize any standalone battery plants yet, they could be next.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
☀️ Solar for all: The U.S. EPA announces $7 billion in grants for the first 60 projects in its Solar for All program, which aim to expand solar power access in low- and middle-income communities. (Associated Press)
🚘 Chargers take charge: The U.S. now has a fast charging station for every 15 gas stations after adding 600 new stations so far this year, as Tesla continues to build out its network and federal funding helps patch charging deserts. (Bloomberg)
🏭 Power plant rule change: Hydrogen industry leaders and environmentalists expect the U.S. EPA to exclude hydrogen from its final power plant emissions rule, leaving carbon capture as the only option for gas plants looking to reduce emissions to meet the regulation. (E&E News)
🕳️ Shortchanged on fossil fuel cleanup: The federal Bureau of Land Management’s newly calculated oil and gas reclamation bonds are based on faulty calculations, and won’t charge fossil fuel companies enough to cover eventual well cleanup costs. (Capital & Main/ProPublica)
⚡️ Rethinking the grid: Virtual power plants, dynamic line ratings, and other advanced grid technologies could open up space on the grid for more electricity while staving off the need for costly, time-consuming transmission construction, a new U.S. Energy Department roadmap finds. (Canary Media)
🌎 Climate action is cheaper: Unmitigated climate change and continued burning of fossil fuels would cost the world an estimated $38 trillion in damages by 2050, six times the cost of transitioning to clean energy and curbing warming, according to a peer-reviewed study. (Axios)
👷 Climate workers wanted: The White House launches a website that lists openings and accepts applications for the Climate Corps jobs and training program. (NPR)
🌊 Big turbines, big problems: GE Vernova’s cancellation of its plans to build one of the biggest wind turbines ever designed is one reason New York rejected several previously authorized offshore wind projects. (E&E News, Politico)
💧 Waste not: Improving wastewater treatment processes could save the U.S. $15.6 billion, reduce energy costs and slash the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, a peer-reviewed study finds. (The Hill)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Amazon has installed more than 17,000 electric vehicle chargers at its warehouses over the last two years, making it the biggest U.S. private charging operator as it easily surpasses competitors’ clean vehicle goals. (Bloomberg)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
GEOTHERMAL: Geothermal has the potential to be a reliable, zero-emission source of energy that’s a natural transition from oil and gas drilling, experts say, if political tensions don’t derail its takeoff. (The Hill)
EFFICIENCY:
STORAGE: Dominion Energy sends a 1.5 MW metal-hydrogen battery to the historically Black Virginia State University to power a venue and become part of a hands-on laboratory and research project for its engineering program. (Energy News Network)
EQUITY:
CLIMATE:
SOLAR: California lawmakers introduce bills aimed at mitigating the effects of or revoking recent state policies slashing incentives for rooftop and community solar. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An appeals court upholds the U.S. EPA’s decision to allow California to set its own electric vehicle sales mandates and tailpipe emissions limits. (Reuters)
ALSO: A California program allowing electric and hybrid vehicle drivers to use carpool lanes without passengers is set to expire this fall, affecting more than 400,000 motorists if it isn’t renewed. (NBC San Diego)
ELECTRIFICATION: Berkeley, California advocates and professional cooks continue to work to electrify restaurant kitchens and homes after a court shot down the city’s natural gas-hookup ban. (Guardian)
UTILITIES: A Colorado county says Xcel Energy inadequately alerted the public to a planned outage aimed at reducing wildfire hazard during severe winds last weekend. (Colorado Sun)
OIL & GAS:
POLLUTION: The U.S. EPA proposes allowing Wyoming to amend a haze reduction plan to factor in the partial conversion of a coal plant to natural gas, which would settle a long-running dispute between the agency and the state. (E&E News)
TRANSMISSION: Arizona advocates, residents and tribal nations continue to challenge a segment of the SunZia transmission project under development through a river valley, saying it will harm ecological and cultural sites. (Inside Climate News)
WIND: Wyoming advocates and local officials push back on state lawmakers’ efforts to increase taxes on wind power generation, saying it would stifle the industry’s growth. (Inside Climate News)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY:
BIOFUELS: California researchers predict growing demand for aviation biofuels will drive land-use changes that could offset the fuels’ emissions benefits and take farms out of food production. (AgWeb)
CARBON CAPTURE: A California company proposes a pilot project at a Washington state port that would enhance ocean water’s ability to capture and store carbon dioxide. (Peninsula Daily News)
MINING: A company submits a plan to restart a long-idled uranium mill in southern Utah. (news release)
COMMENTARY: A Wyoming columnist praises environmentalists and climate deniers for their unsuccessful joint effort to kill a costly coal-friendly carbon capture mandate. (WyoFile)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Indiana officials say a pilot highway construction project that charges electric vehicles as they drive has the potential to spur greater adoption and change how the public thinks about EVs. (Inside Climate News)
ALSO: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, seeks federal funding to replace five diesel buses in its transportation fleet with hybrid diesel-electric models. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
OHIO: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted refuses to say whether he knew about a $1 million contribution in 2017 from FirstEnergy to a political group that supported his campaign for governor. (Ohio Capital Journal)
UTILITIES: Proposed legislation in Illinois would subject municipal power agencies to more state oversight and require integrated resource planning as companies face growing scrutiny over large coal portfolios. (Daily Herald)
SOLAR:
POLITICS:
GRID:
PIPELINES: Four Great Lakes tribes urge a Michigan appeals court to overturn state regulators’ approval of a permit allowing Enbridge to build an underwater tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac to house Line 5. (E&E News, subscription)
COAL: Michigan regulators block a utility from recovering more than $1 million in excess charges from unprofitable coal plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., in contrast to Ohio regulators’ approach. (Checks & Balances Project)
NUCLEAR: The lengthy outage of a Minnesota nuclear plant late last year occurred after Xcel Energy workers drilled through cables that interrupted power to equipment, the utility disclosed to federal regulators. (Star Tribune)
COMMENTARY: A Wisconsin conservative group says recent polling indicates strong support for clean energy among young rural voters, a key demographic that will be crucial for future GOP success in elections. (Journal Sentinel)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: After setbacks to adopting electric vehicle sales targets in Maine and Connecticut, frustrated New England clean transportation advocates refocus on charging infrastructure and consumer education. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
POLICY:
OFFSHORE WIND: Boston’s mayor throws her support behind Avangrid Renewables’ bid to develop an offshore wind farm supporting Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, saying the city would purchase up to 15 MW from the site. (Boston.com)
SOLAR:
FOSSIL FUELS:
FUEL CELLS: Massachusetts’ governor and other top state officials visit Nuvera Fuel Cells in Billerica to announce $30 million in federal funds for the hydrogen fuel cell company. (Lowell Sun)
INCINERATION: Dozens of community and climate groups ask Maryland’s governor and legislative leaders to hold a vote on a bill to end subsidies for trash incineration plants. (Baltimore Brew)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle chargers are often inaccessible for people with disabilities, a growing problem as officials forecast millions more electric vehicles on roads in the coming years. (Mother Jones)
ALSO: After setbacks to adopting electric vehicle sales targets in Maine and Connecticut, frustrated New England clean transportation advocates refocus on charging infrastructure and consumer education. (Energy News Network)
CLEAN ENERGY:
HYDROGEN: As the U.S. Treasury Department tries to ensure its hydrogen tax credits go to projects involving clean energy, industry leaders say the federal rules will discourage nuclear-produced hydrogen and make projects prohibitively expensive. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS:
EMISSIONS: The U.S. EPA moves to lower inaccurately high soot measurements taken since 2017, potentially making it easier for some areas to meet new pollution standards. (E&E News)
CLIMATE:
CARBON CAPTURE: A Virginia company says it successfully used carbon capture technology to grow lettuce at an indoor farm. (Roanoke Times)
GRID: The ongoing legal dispute over a $649 million transmission line between Iowa and Wisconsin highlights differences between environmental and clean energy advocacy groups. (Inside Climate News)
WIND: After “inflammatory rhetoric” about renewables discouraged bids in last year’s offshore wind auction near Texas, federal officials are shifting their attention to areas off Louisiana instead. (Louisiana Illuminator)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A school district in northern Minnesota is among the first tribal school districts in the country to receive electric school buses under a new $5 billion federal program. (E&E News)
ALSO: After stopping production in late 2023, just a few thousand of General Motors’ best-selling electric vehicle — the Chevrolet Bolt — remain for sale. (Detroit Free Press)
HYDROGEN: Some companies challenge the narrative that industry players want to weaken proposed federal rules for lucrative hydrogen tax credits, maintaining that green hydrogen will be crucial to avoid increasing emissions. (Energy News Network)
AIR POLLUTION:
CLEAN ENERGY:
GRID: Clean energy and environmental groups urge federal regulators to reject grid operator Southwest Power Pool’s latest proposal to measure capacity that critics say discriminates against wind, solar and storage. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR: Walmart partners with a national developer to build more than a dozen community solar projects across five states, including Illinois. (Solar Industry)
CLIMATE: A University of Michigan researcher argues in a new paper that the labor that goes into climate advocacy and fighting fossil fuel projects should be compensated. (Grist)
OIL & GAS: A North Dakota official says building infrastructure to transport carbon dioxide will be key to helping the state meet its oil and gas production potential. (KFYR)
COMMENTARY: An attorney and former director of the Nebraska Energy Office says a proposed bill would discourage renewable energy investments in the state by creating more red tape for developers. (Nebraska Examiner)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California researchers find electric vehicle adoption in the Bay Area has led to a 2.6% annual decrease in automobile emissions. (Courthouse News)
ALSO:
TRANSPORTATION:
OIL & GAS:
WIND: Developers bring a 152 MW wind power facility online in southeastern Idaho. (Renewables Now)
SOLAR: The Biden administration awards $19 million to projects in California, Oregon and Utah to help install solar panels over irrigation canals. (Courthouse News)
HYDROPOWER: Northwest officials predict low winter and spring precipitation levels will diminish this summer’s hydropower output from the region. (S&P Global)
CLIMATE: A Colorado ski area says it has reached its goal of operating on a net-zero carbon footprint a year ahead of schedule. (KDVR)
GRID: The Bonneville Power Administration’s staff recommends the agency join the Southwest Power Pool’s day-ahead power market rather than the California grid operator’s. (RTO Insider, subscription)
COAL:
NUCLEAR: A federal study predicts that converting a coal plant to an advanced nuclear reactor would add about 30 to 100 full-time jobs, a figure in line with projections for a Wyoming conversion. (Utility Dive)
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