Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Makes Historic Investments in Energy & Transportation

With enactment of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the Biden Administration is now working to quickly roll out what is the most significant long-term investment in the nation’s infrastructure. The BIL includes a new five-year surface transportation reauthorization as well as $550 billion in new spending for energy, water, broadband, and transportation.

The funds will be distributed in two ways: (1) formula-based funding for States, territories, local governments, and Tribes; and (2) competitive grants open to a wide array of applicants including states, territories, local governments, Indian tribes, utility and transmission developers, rural cooperatives, industry stakeholders, national laboratories, institutions of higher education, non-profit and for-profit private entities, and others.

Key formula-based funding includes:

• Weatherization Assistance Program ($3.5 billion)

• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program ($550 million)

• State Energy Program ($500 million)

• Preventing outages and enhance the resilience of the electric grid ($2.5 billion)

• Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund Capitalization Grant Program ($250 million)

• Electric Vehicle Formula Program ($5 billion)

• Carbon Reduction Program that includes EV charging ($6.4 billion)

Key competitive grant funding includes:

• Preventing outages and increase the resilience of the electric grid ($2.5 billion)

• Energy Infrastructure Federal Financial Assistance Program ($5 billion)

• Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Program ($1 billion)

• Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program ($3 billion)

• Transmission Facilitation Program ($2.5 billion)

• Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Program ($2.1 billion)

• Carbon Storage Validation and Testing ($2.5 billion)

• Direct Air Capture Hubs ($3.5 billion)

• Clean Hydrogen  Hubs ($8 billion)

• Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing and Recycling Program ($500 million)

• Clean Hydrogen Electrolysis Program ($1 billion)

• Carbon Capture Large Scale Pilot Projects ($937 million)

• Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program ($2.5 billion)

• Battery Material Processing Grant Program ($3 billion)

• Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program ($3 billion)

• Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Competition ($10 million)

• Battery Recycling and Second-life Applications Program ($200 million)

• Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program ($750 million)

• Hydroelectric Production Incentives ($125 million)

• Hydropower Capital Improvements ($554 million)

• Grants for Energy Efficiency Improvements and Renewable Energy Improvements at Public School Facilities ($500 million)

• Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies Grant Program ($250 million)

• Industrial Emissions Demonstration Projects ($500 million)

• Solar Energy Demonstration Projects ($80 million)

• Wind Energy Demonstration Projects ($100 million)

• Geothermal Energy Demonstration Projects ($84 million)

• Carbon Reduction Program that includes EV charging ($6.4 billion)

• Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grants ($2.5 billion)

Accessing energy sector opportunities

• Open funding opportunities from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy can be found by clicking HERE.

• Funding opportunities specifically related to batteries are found HERE.

• Solicitations and funding opportunities from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) can be found by clicking HERE.

NETL has announced that in the first quarter of calendar year 2022 it will issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement on “Clean Hydrogen Production, Storage, Transport and Utilization to Enable a Net Zero Carbon Economy”.

NETL has also issued a Request for Information titled “Deployment and Demonstration Opportunities for Carbon Reduction and Removal Technologies” to solicit feedback from industry members, investors, developers, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, potentially impacted communities and other stakeholders on potential carbon management demonstration and deployment projects and their associated locations, including potentially ideal locations for these projects in the United States, all while considering environmental justice, energy transition, tribal, and other impacted communities. Responses are due by January 24, 2022.

Accessing transportation sector opportunities

• When announced, funding opportunities at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), including those related to electric vehicles (EV) and EV charging infrastructure will be found HERE. This is primarily formula funding for states, local governments, etc.

• State-by-state fact sheets from the Department of Transportation are found HERE.

The FHWA on December 2 issued a Request for Information regarding the BIL’s National Electric Vehicle Formula Program (EV Charging Program) which will provide funding to states to strategically deploy EV charging infrastructure and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability. The comment period is open until January 28, 2022 and details can be found in the Federal Register by clicking HERE. 

The Department of Energy and Department of Transportation have created a new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation to support the build out of a nationwide network of 500,000 EV charging stations.