Our Mission: Power A Clean Future Ohio is building momentum now for a clean, prosperous future by equipping local leaders for equitable, community-driven carbon reductions in Ohio. |
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Local Action Update:
Cuyahoga Falls joins Power A Clean Future Ohio
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At a recent Cuyahoga Falls City Council meeting, councilmembers unanimously adopted a resolution to join Power a Clean Future Ohio, underscoring the community’s commitment to achieving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. The city will reap the benefits of cost savings through building and facilities management, land use and transportation planning, and economic and community development. PCFO will work with local leaders to provide technical assistance and partnerships as they develop a roadmap for Cuyahoga Falls. With passage of this resolution, Cuyahoga Falls became the 33rd community to join Power a Clean Future Ohio.
Cassandra Clevenger, Deputy Director of Power a Clean Future Ohio said, “As part of Power a Clean Future Ohio, leaders and community members in Cuyahoga Falls will have support to help with their initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and develop sustainability goals in ways that are achievable, measurable, equitable, and economical. We look forward to working together to improve quality of life through tools to help reach the community’s energy goals including technical support, grant-writing guidance, and peer-to-peer networking.”
City Council member Mary Nichols-Rhodes (D-Ward 4) said, “This will continue our efforts to reduce energy use, provide excellent service and reliable power to our city, implement innovative ways to protect our environment, improve river health, and reduce pollution to improve resident outcomes and quality of life.”
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Power a Clean Future Ohio and the Ohio Environmental Council released a new report developed in partnership with Scioto Analysis showing that local governments across Ohio will need to vastly increase municipal spending to adapt to the challenges of a worsening climate crisis.
From modernizing infrastructure and ensuring public safety, to improving school systems and tackling the opioid crisis, Ohio’s local governments shoulder the costs of many critical public policy issues. Underlying each of these diverse and complicated issues is one big question: what will it cost?
Municipal officials already grappling with difficult budget decisions now have an additional challenge to add to their strained financial resources: climate change. Communities across Ohio have been coping with increasing temperatures, flooding, erosion, and climate-related extreme weather events for years. These climate damages are projected to only intensify in approaching decades, generating new costs associated with climate-driven disaster recovery and adaptation, as well as creating a major strain on already overstretched taxpayers and cash-strapped local governments. Unless we see drastic changes at every level of government to address carbon emissions in the next few years, these impacts will only continue to worsen — and the cost to address them will skyrocket.
The financial burden that climate change is placing on municipal governments is not well understood. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by assessing a subset of climate impacts that will create significant costs for local governments in Ohio. In total, our analysis identified 50 unique climate impacts that Ohio municipalities will have to address across the range of their mandates of infrastructure provision, public health services, housing, public safety, and more.
To download the full report, click here.
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Columbus launches first solar co-op to boost community participation in clean energy |
At a press conference in North Linden on Tuesday, the City of Columbus launched their first Columbus Area Solar Co-op which will help educate and support residents that want to install solar panels. Solar United Neighbors and Sustainable Columbus will host free info sessions about solar energy and roof assessment at no charge. Once enough people join, Solar United Neighbors will request bids from local solar companies. The selection committee will then vet the bidders, lengths of warranties and costs. They will then choose one that fits members needs.
Columbus City Council member Emmanuel Remy said the co-op’s goal this year is 75 home and business installations. "With the recent heat wave and power outages in June, having access to clean, reliable, local energy sources is critical," Remy said. The first of four info sessions will be held virtually Thursday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m. An in-person info session will be held on Monday, July 25 at 5:00 p.m. at Impact Community Action.
To read more about this, click here.
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PCFO INFRASTRUCTURE GRANT SNAPSHOTS
Federal Funding: Find it here!
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Visit the PCFO IGAP Webinar page to review notes from the BIL Guidebook Introduction, Electric Vehicles, Public Transportation, and Clean Energy and Power webinars. These notes include information on the federal departments’ goals, funding opportunities, and available links to program pages.
If you are interested in applying or need PCFO’s support please contact Sarah Spence, IGAP Coordinator, at sarah@ohcef.org with any questions.
The Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge (RPIC) provides planning support, technical assistance, and training to communities to foster placemaking activities in rural communities. Placemaking is a collaborative engagement process that helps leaders from rural communities create quality places where people will want to live, work, play and learn. Funds can help enhance capacity for broadband access, preserve cultural and historic structures, and support the development of transportation, housing, and recreational spaces.
Administered through the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $1B to carry out activities to improve the resilience, safety, reliability, and availability of energy and provide environmental protection from adverse impacts of energy generation in rural and remote communities with populations of 10,000 or less. Eligible projects may include: (A) Overall cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission, or distribution systems; (B) siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines; (C) reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation by rural or remote areas; (D) providing or modernizing electric generation facilities; (E) developing microgrids; and (F) increasing energy efficiency. DOE anticipates emphasizing grid reliability and resiliency for the funding, and will conduct stakeholder engagement over the next few months to inform the structure of the program.
The Bridge Investment Program provides funding opportunities across three categories: (1) Planning; (2) Bridge Projects; and (3) Large Bridge Projects. The goals of the BIP are: (1) to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the movement of people and freight over bridges; (2) to improve the condition of bridges in the United States; and (3) to provide financial assistance that leverages and encourages nonFederal contributions from sponsors and stakeholders involved in the planning, design, and construction of eligible projects.
The FHWA released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes regulations setting minimum standards and requirements for projects funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and projects for the construction of publicly accessible electric vehicle (EV) chargers. The standards and requirements proposed would apply to the installation, operation, or maintenance of EV charging infrastructure; the interoperability of EV charging infrastructure; traffic control device or on-premises signage acquired, installed, or operated in concert with EV charging infrastructure; data, including the format and schedule for the submission of such data; network connectivity of EV charging infrastructure; and information on publicly available EV charging infrastructure locations, pricing, real-time availability, and accessibility through mapping applications.
The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from stakeholders on issues related to the demonstration of clean energy projects on mine land. DOE is specifically interested in information on how demonstration programs can be implemented to stimulate private sector follow-on investments and deliver maximum benefits in terms of high-quality job creation, local and regional economic development, environmental justice and greenhouse gas emission reductions.
This funding opportunity will support Brownfields Job Training programs that recruit, train, and retain a local, skilled workforce by prioritizing unemployed and underemployed residents to obtain the skills and credentials needed for pathways into full-time employment in the environmental field. Through the Brownfields Job Training Program, graduates develop skill sets that improve their ability to secure full-time, sustainable employment in various aspects of hazardous and solid waste management and within the larger environmental field, including sustainable cleanup and reuse, and chemical safety.
The goal of this funding opportunity is to develop the tools and processes to help a broad set of stakeholders understand the implications and participate in the development of locally-based energy generation in their community. To achieve this goal, applicants will assimilate data from a variety of sources into novel tools, “dashboards,” or other applications that will assess the impacts and tradeoffs, including potential benefits and challenges of locally-based energy generation. These tools should be accessible and easy-to-use to a wide array of stakeholders that are not necessarily electric power system experts. Achievement of this goal should accelerate deployment of renewable energy towards an equitable de-carbonized grid, and it will come through pursuit of several concurrent objectives in successful system design.
DOE issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback on the implementation of energy storage demonstration programs. These energy storage programs will provide the opportunity to accelerate commercialization for energy technologies by: (1) demonstrating the technologies at scale; and (2) partnering with community and industry stakeholders so they can best adopt and benefit from these technologies.
The purpose of Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grants is to improve roadway safety by significantly reducing or eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries through safety action plan development and implementation focused on all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, motorists, personal conveyance and micromobility users, and commercial vehicle operators. The program provides funding to develop the tools to help strengthen a community’s approach to roadway safety and save lives and is designed to meet the needs of diverse local, Tribal, and regional communities that differ dramatically in size, location, and experience administering Federal funding.
Created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the EPA’s new Clean School Bus Program will provide $5 billion to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models over the next 5 years. The first funding opportunity under this Program is the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates. The CSB Rebates will fund the replacement of existing school buses with cleaner buses that result in better air quality on the bus, in bus loading areas, and throughout the communities in which they operate. Is one of your schools listed on EPA’s priority school districts list? Please share with your district leadership or school board members and make sure they know about this opportunity!
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Solar United Neighbors
July 25 at 5 p.m. - 6 p.m., Impact C.A. 711 Southwood Ave. Columbus 43207
Solar United Neighbors has an upcoming info session for the Columbus Co-op on July 25th. The in-person portion is taking place at Impact Community Action. Impact has just launched a new programed called Empowered! which in part will be taking members of the BIPOC and LMI community through a grant-funded 12-week program offering education with a certificate in a trade, in particular with this co-op, we are going to be emphasizing the Solar Installer program and how that ties to local installers.
To register for this event, click here.
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IS SOLAR RIGHT FOR YOU?
August 3, 2022, 6:00 P.M., 507 Oak Hill Ave, Youngstown, Ohio
Community Conversation & Free legal Clinic to talk about:
- What solar energy is;
- If it's the right fit for your energy needs; and
- No-cost legal advice to get your solar questions answered.
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Interested in getting started? Join today! |
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PCFO is an expansive, diverse coalition engaging with cities and local governments across the state of Ohio to build a clean future for our communities. Power A Clean Future Ohio is empowering local leaders with tools and resources to create carbon reduction plans and implement them in ways that are achievable, measurable, equitable and economical.
Our coalition of expert organizations wants to share our technical expertise and resources with your community. If your community wants to work on plans to reduce emissions, attract business investment, implement equitable clean energy policy, and reduce costs – contact us today to set up a meeting!
If your business or organization would like to support PCFO, we invite you to join the campaign as a PCFO Partner. Contact us for more details.
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