News

The Compact partners have recently submitted an application to the EPA to advance work under the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants  (CPRG) program. The $1 million planning grant available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 will position the region’s local and tribal governments to be competitive for the next phase of discretionary awards (a $4.6 billion pot of funds) to implement mitigation projects and strategies. 

Through the CPRG, each of the largest 67 most populous metropolitan areas in the country is eligible for the $1 million planning grant, inclusive of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Given the long-term and considerable partnership across the four Compact counties (Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach), the Compact’s application and resulting climate mitigation plan will cover the entire geographic scope of the Compact region. The four-year award will result in the development of a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan for the four-county region, inclusive of a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and emission projections, GHG reduction targets and strategies, a benefits analysis with a specific focus on low- and moderate-income communities, a plan to leverage other federal funding and a workforce planning analysis. 

Prior to submitting the application, the Compact counties reached out to all local and tribal governments in the region to request their engagement, and received 36 letters of support from municipal and tribal governments. Significant stakeholder outreach, engagement and partnership efforts are planned as part of the grant’s program design, including with local/tribal governments, agencies that have implementation authority, community-based organizations, low- and moderate-income communities that will be prioritized in the plan development and the private sector. 

Later this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue a separate notice of funding opportunity regarding $4.6 billion for implementation grants, which the EPA plans to award under a competitive process. Municipalities and tribal governments will be eligible to receive implementation grants for measures identified in the regional plan. The EPA anticipates providing implementation grants across a wide range of funding levels, with the largest grant awards potentially exceeding $100 million. 

Stay tuned for more information following the formal award announcement, anticipated later this summer.