The week in climate policy: 4 updates you need to know

Here’s the week in climate policy news: 

Sophia Davirro/GreenBiz

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Sophia Davirro/GreenBiz

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named the nonprofit consortia that will receive a total of $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The three nonprofit coalitions of green banks and community lenders evenly sharing $14 billion from the GGRF’s National Clean Investment Fund are Power Forward, Climate United, and the Coalition for Green Capital. The remaining $6 billion will be divided between 5 nonprofit community hubs from the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, helping lenders in underserved communities expand into green lending.  
• The EPA launched a new website that centralizes information regarding the agency’s permitting processes. Specifically, it highlights the EPA’s permitting and review process and shares content regarding related statutes and environmental justice initiatives.
• After withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Virginia applied for millions of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act for state and local programs to reduce pollution and emissions. The application focuses on cutting emissions from industry and transport by proposing the development of renewable energy generation for businesses and homes and creating state subsidies for electric vehicles.   
• The Biden administration released a blueprint for the decarbonization of existing and future buildings. Specific targets in the plan include reducing embodied emissions from building materials and construction 90 percent by 2050 compared to 2005, and reducing energy used in buildings by 35 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2005. The blueprint specifies funding options available from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that state, local and tribal governments can access to meet the emissions goals.