SLC Guide to Federal Funding for Climate Action and Clean Energy Initiatives

Overviews of the federal funding opportunities

There are numerous summaries of the federal opportunities available via the Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction legislation.  

Specific to Wisconsin:

• Wisconsin's Office of Energy Innovation maintains a webpage that summarizes the status of various federal funding opportunities with links to more specifics. This page will be an important resource to use in understanding how various federal programs flow through state agencies. 
• Kathy Kuntz did a talk for the Dane County Cities & Villages Association in December 2022 about the opportunities for local cities and villages. 

More broadly, on the opportunities for local governments to green their operations and to leverage funding for communitywide action, check out:

• The White House's new IRA website - Clean Energy for All - includes the latest information about specific IRA guidelines.  You can sign up for updates there too.
• C40 Cities and Climate Mayors did a great primer on all the ways local municipalities can leverage the IRA to acceleration climate and clean energy action. 
• BlueGreen Alliance’s summary features numerous tables that summarize the opportunities under the IRA in a variety of categories, making it a terrific at-a-glance guide.  
• The blog Amy Turner wrote on Cities and the Inflation Reduction Act for the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. She lists seven opportunities for cities to secure IRA dollars: climate pollution reduction, zero emission large vehicles, coastal resilience, transportation planning, building energy code adoption (for cities in eligible states), block grants, and the greenhouse gas reduction fund (green bank).
• The White House Guidebook to the IRA includes a summary of each opportunity. The webpage also features a glossary and a spreadsheet of all funding opportunities.
• The White House Guidebook to the BIL summarizes all the funding under that legislation. 

Opportunities Specific to School Districts

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOC) have launched several new initiatives specific to school districts. 

• The EPA awarded almost $1 billion in funding in the first round of the Clean School Bus Program in 2022.  EPA is already soliciting school feedback for the next round of school bus funding. 
• Funding under the first round of Renew America's Schools grants is now available. The DOE expects to allocate $80M of the total $500M in funding in this round with concept papers due in January 2023. The program will help schools reduce energy costs and foster healthier learning environments.