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:
Village of Oakwood becomes 28th PCFO Community
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At Tuesday’s Village of Oakwood Council meeting, council members unanimously adopted a resolution to join Power a Clean Future Ohio, furthering the community’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. PCFO will work with local leaders to provide technical assistance and partnerships to help staff as they develop a roadmap during Fiscal Year 2022 for the Village to achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and to proactively seek input from the community in developing and promoting the plan. With passage of this resolution, the Village of Oakwood became the 28th community to join Power a Clean Future Ohio.
“We have a unique opportunity to address climate issues that are impacting the future of those in our community,” said Chris Callender, Ward 1 Councilman. “We look forward to working with Power A Clean Future Ohio to improve energy costs and support local renewable energy production.”
Mayor Gary Gottschalk said, “Oakwood Village has transformed from a community once reliant on taxes from smokestack industries to now prospering with a steady stream of upscale business in technology life science and medical research. That’s exactly why joining Power A Clean Future Ohio makes sense for our community. There is no charge to join PCFO and it provides us an opportunity to meet with technical experts to ensure we continue to move our community forward.”
We look forward to embarking on this new partnership and begin creating a clean energy future for their community.
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Dayton's Electric Aggregation Program will provide residents MAJOR savings on energy bills with 100% renewable energy |
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The city of Dayton residents and small businesses participating in the Dayton Electric Aggregation Program will not be impacted by AES Ohio’s recent proposed standard service offer rate increase. Last May, the City of Dayton joined the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council (SOPEC), a nonprofit council of governments that works with Dayton and other member communities across Ohio to secure a competitive electricity rate and access to renewable energy for residents and small businesses. Starting with the June 2022 meter-read date, eligible City of Dayton residents and small businesses will receive 100% renewable energy at 7.457 cents per kWh for their electricity supply charges for 12 months, which is approximately 30% cheaper than the AES standard services offer. The average Dayton customer is estimated to save roughly $300 over the next 12 months.
To read more about this article, click here.
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PCFO INFRASTRUCTURE GRANT SNAPSHOTS
Federal Funding: Find it here!
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Four recent grants were just released that may be of interest to your communities. If you are interested in applying or need PCFO’s support please contact Sarah Spence, IGAP Coordinator, at sarah@ohcef.org with any questions.
ALL of the grants listed below have due dates for applications, letters, or concept papers THIS MONTH.
The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback to inform the solicitation process and structure of a potential Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, DOE has $225 million to provide support to states that will enable sustained cost-effective implementation of updated building codes. This RFI seeks input on the following areas that will inform the FOA: 1) Energy Code Implementation Criteria and Requirements for Key Topic Areas; 2) Advanced Energy Codes and Building Resilience; 3) Methods to Support Sustained State Energy and Building Resilience Code Implementation; 4)Funding, Partnerships, Eligible Entities, and Evaluation Criteria; and 5) Energy and Environmental Justice (EEJ) Priorities.
RACER is a funding opportunity for projects that enable communities to utilize solar and solar-plus-storage to prevent disruptions in power caused by extreme weather and other events and to rapidly restore electricity if it goes down. Projects will foster engagement and ongoing communication among multiple stakeholders and will develop and demonstrate rapid energy restoration technologies based on the community resilience plan in order to increase the durability of photovoltaic (PV) systems.
Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grants is a competitive program for projects that improve facilities within, or outside of and directly related to operations of or an intermodal connection to coastal seaports, inland river ports, and Great Lakes ports.
The Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program is an existing competitive program that will see a more than 50% increase in this year’s funding due to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These grants advance the Administration’s priorities of rebuilding America’s infrastructure and creating jobs by funding highway, multimodal freight and rail projects that position America to win the 21st century.
The National Infrastructure Project Assistance (MEGA) program was created to fund major projects that are too large or complex for traditional funding programs. The program will provide grants on a competitive basis to support multijurisdictional or regional projects of significance that may also cut across multiple modes of transportation.
The Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program (RURAL) was created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will support projects to improve and expand the surface transportation infrastructure in rural areas to increase connectivity, improve the safety and reliability of the movement of people and freight, and generate regional economic growth and improve quality of life.
The Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program makes federal resources available to states and direct recipients to replace, rehabilitate and purchase buses and related equipment and to construct bus-related facilities including technological changes or innovations to modify low or no emission vehicles or facilities. The Low or No EmissionGrant Program is a sub-program.
The Low or No Emission competitive program provides funding to state and local governmental authorities for the purchase or lease of zero-emission and low-emission transit buses as well as acquisition, construction, and leasing of required supporting facilities.
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Ohio communities get help switching fleets to alternative fuels
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Drive Clean Rural USA is a U.S. Department of Energy grant-funded pilot project aimed at helping county governments analyze how they can best incorporate alternative fuels into their fleets. “This project is all about overcoming barriers that rural communities face in transitioning to cleaner fields and vehicles,” said Transportation Energy Partners Executive Director Ken Brown. This is a three-year project that is rolling out in three phases. Phase one, which is happening right now, includes finding rural counties that want to be involved. The selected counties will then be announced in June, when phase two begins. Bowman Consulting and Clean Fuels Ohio will provide free technical assistance to help them figure out what sort of alternative fuel would work best for the county. The third phase will include a put-together guidebook, so other rural communities can assess switching to alternative fuels in their fleets. |
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Cleveland Heights city leaders receives 'thank you" |
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The Cleveland Heights community thanked city leaders for joining Power A Clean Future Ohio. Here are just a few of the letters local leaders received. Thank you, Cleveland Heights! |
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City of Lakewood recognized as one of the 2021 Green Building Challenge Winners |
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Cleveland 2030 District partners with USGBC’s Ohio’s Northeast Region each year on a friendly Green Building Challenge. This year, exemplary renovation and new construction project submissions were accepted in five categories from the general Northeast Ohio area:
- Overall Exemplary Project
- Energy Reduction / Management
- Water Conservation / Management
- Transportation Emissions Reduction
- Healthy Buildings
Our PCFO community member, the City of Lakewood, won the award for reducing transportation emissions, for its efforts in expanding the electric vehicle charging infrastructure over the last year. Three judges appointed by Cleveland 2030 District and USGBC Ohio reviewed 21 commendable projects. Congratulations to the 2021 winners!
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PCFO Sustainability Planning Cohort to Start in June 2022 |
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PCFO is excited to announce its inaugural Sustainability and Climate Action Planning Cohort! This free, six-month program is designed to support and assist PCFO communities that are in similar stages of the planning process.
PCFO communities will hear from technical experts and experienced peers on topics such as building the case for developing a plan; data collection, management and analysis; choosing your policy and program priorities and conducting equitable community engagement and outreach. If you are interested in signing up, please click here.
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Aggregation Information Session
Thursday, May 19, doors open at 6 p.m. at Wyman Woods Park’s W.W. Williams Shelter House (1515 Goodale Blvd. Grandview Heights, OH 43212)
Join us to hear from PCFO, Sustainable Grandview, and Ohio Citizen Action who will co-host an aggregation information session about how transitioning your community to 100% renewable energy can help us all tackle climate change.
Panelists & Speakers will include:
Erin Beck, Assistant Sustainability Officer for the City of Columbus
Melanie Houston, Grandview Heights City Councilperson
Matt Jolson, Marble Cliff Village Councilperson
Luke Sulfridge, Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council Executive Director
Mark Gavin, Sr., Power A Clean Future Ohio Campaigns Director
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AOAI Ride and Drive
Wednesday, May 25 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the Ohio Statehouse
Join AOAI at the Ohio Statehouse for a ride and drive event in support of SB 307, Accelerating Ohio’s Auto Industry. To learn more and register, click here.
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2022 Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit
June 16, 2022, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m., Cintas Center, Xavier University
Each year, the Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit brings together hundreds of passionate business, nonprofit, government and community leaders to share inspiring forward-thinking and solution-oriented ideas that propel us toward a healthier, more resilient, sustainable and equitable future. Relevant topics like healthy & resilient communities, business & green, circular economy, government & policy, and more will be discussed. To learn more and register, click here.
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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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