NE Washington News

This week in Washington, D.C., Congressman Brett Guthrie from Kentucky's 2nd district, Congressman Gary Palmer from Alabama's 6th district, and Congressman Morgan Griffith from Virginia's 9th district announced that letters have been sent to eight recipients of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) grants. All three congressmen hold chair positions within the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its subcommittees, concerning oversight and environment matters.

Concerns have been raised by these congressmen regarding the structure and operation of the GGRF program since its inception. They pointed out issues, including a "potential lack of due diligence in selecting award recipients, and the recipients' ability to manage the large influx of federal dollars they received from the EPA." The committee has questioned the rapid distribution of funds by the Biden Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was discussed in a recent Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing. The chairmen emphasized the purpose of this investigation is to ensure funds were "awarded fairly and impartially to qualified applicants and determining how the federal funds are being used."

The Inflation Reduction Act authorized the EPA to establish the GGRF with a $27 billion budget. Of this, $20 billion was allocated to eight grant recipients. Under the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) program, $14 billion went to three recipients, and under the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program, $6 billion was distributed to five recipients.

The recipients of the National Clean Investment Fund Program are the Coalition for Green Capital, Climate United Fund, and Power Forward Communities. For the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator Program, the funds were granted to the Justice Climate Fund, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, Native CDFI Network, and Appalachian Community Capital.