Projects on Delmarva to benefit from EPA climate pollution reduction grants
DELMARVA – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving the fight against climate change a major shot in the arm.
Monday, the agency released $4.3 billion to grant awardees across the nation. A significant sum of that funding is coming to the Delmarva Peninsula.
Atlantic Conservation Coalition Gets $421.2M
One award, totaling $421,238,074 is being split between the Atlantic Conservation Coalition, a partnership between the states of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The grant will be administered over five years, and the work it will support aims to cut 28 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution by the year 2050.
In order to reach that goal, work in Maryland will include the planting of 217,700 trees and 4,800,000 native wetland species. In addition, 10,000 acres of shorelines and habitats in Virginia, and 10,000 acres of forests, current or future coastal habitats, or agricultural lands in Maryland are expected to be restored.
Allison Tjaden, Special Projects Manager for the Maryland Department of Environment’s Climate Change Program, says the work will span Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties. This grant award will also support efforts to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways by reducing soil runoff and nitrogen pollution.
“There is a special emphasis on the Lower Eastern Shore when it comes to the Atlantic Conservation Coalition, thinking about the importance of investment,” Tjaden said. “This grant announcement from the EPA will supercharge all of the existing efforts, and allow those departments to work in areas where they’ve identified important areas of focus. A good example would be the [Maryland] Department of Agriculture, which will be enhancing its efforts with agroforestry.”
$248.9M Awarded to Clean Corridor Coalition
Meanwhile, the EPA also awarded $248,900,000 to the Clean Corridor Coalition, made up of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland.
This project aims to develop about 20 electric vehicle charging sites for freight trucks. The sites would include 148 overnight use ports, 164 fast charging ports, and 138 ultra-fast charging ports for medium and heavy-duty electric freight vehicles along the I-95 corridor.
“It is the most heavily used freight corridor in the nation,” said Stephanie Johnson, Director of DelDOT’s Division of Transportation Resilience and Sustainability. “You can imagine the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are put out by those freight vehicles.”
The goal of this project is to cut 18.6 million metric tons of pollution by 2050. Johnson says another big focus will be to incentivize the private trucking industry to transition to electric vehicles and spur the growth of electric vehicle infrastructure along the I-95 corridor.
In 2023, the Delaware General Assembly passed legislation to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; Maryland lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2022, with aims for the same goal by 2045. And, diesel fuel is a big contributor to those emissions.
“The trucks aren’t just coming through our small portion [of the corridor in Delaware,]” said Johnson. “So, being able to work together, utilize the resources that we have, the expertise and knowledge, the data, we hope to come up with the best approach.”
Focus on Disadvantaged, Vulnerable Communities
However, the grant awardees are not just focusing on planting plants and building infrastructure. Tjaden says a major focus for the EPA in launching these grants was to bring the potential benefits of those projects to low-income and disadvantaged communities.
“We know what there already is coastal flooding, we know that there are already risks for our coastal wetlands,” Tjaden said. “Building up the resiliency of those natural environments will help to alleviate those risks for the most vulnerable members of our communities.”
As part of the Clean Corridor Coalition’s grant award, plans are in play to implement a workforce development program for 400 construction, operation, and maintenance workers.
Those workers, says Johnson, will be crucial for upkeep of the new electric vehicle infrastructure. Plus, the grant will create opportunities for low-income and disadvantaged community members to receive specialized training, with a direct path towards high-quality jobs.
Johnson sees it as a win-win situation. Construction on those sites may begin as early as 2026.
“There will be transportation, childcare, those types of things to incentivize folks to pursue this type of workforce development,” Johnson said. “This will really help in providing the infrastructure that’s needed to support not just the constructor, but the future maintenance of these sites.”
To learn more about the EPA’s recently awarded grants, click here.
