On this 54th Earth Day, there’s plenty of “green” to celebrate. Billions of federal dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act are going to support environmental efforts nationwide.
“We haven’t seen this kind of change in decades and decades, this kind of investment in infrastructure,” New England EPA Regional Administrator David Cash told Boston Public Radio on Monday.
As the EPA works on regulations to reduce emissions and environmental contaminants like PFAS, funds from these bills will support people on the ground, said Cash.
One of these funding pathways is the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Money will be distributed to national and regional hubs that Cash described as “revolving loan funds,” that entities can access to help in their transition to clean energy.
For example, the manager of a public housing unit in Boston applied for a loan to help fix energy inefficiencies in a building where appliances didn’t work and gaps under tenants’ doors made regulating temperature difficult. This fund helped retrofit the building.
Cash said that for every dollar the federal government spends through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the private sector will add an estimated $7. The thinking is that if someone like the public housing director secures federal funding for the building retrofit, it will make their financing more secure for private investors.
“It brings the private sector off the sidelines in a fundamental way that just has not happened here before,” Cash said.
Yet challenges remain for implementing some of the plans outlined in these laws. Notably, the slow rollout of electric vehicle chargers.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes funding for 500,000 new EV chargers by 2030. Only seven have been built so far, according to reporting from the Washington Post.
This slow start is likely because of the many stakeholders involved in setting up a charging system between cities and states, and requires not only federal and state action, but support from municipalities and the private sector to get people buying electric vehicles.
“This is a huge change,” said Cash, “It takes a lot of hard work to make that change happen. But it’s happening.”
Cash said production is “ramping up” and he’s “confident” the U.S. will reach 500,000 chargers by 2026.