What is Oregon's Climate Pollution Reduction Planning Grant?
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program is one of many federal funding opportunities created through the Inflation Reduction Act and run through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA provided the first round of grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution.
Through this first grant, the state of Oregon created a Priority Climate Action Plan and submitted it to EPA on Feb. 29, 2024. Our next deliverable to EPA is the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, due December 2025, to highlight even more opportunities to reduce climate pollution. In addition to the state, Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Indians and the Portland-Hillsboro-Vancouver region led by Metro are leading planning grants.
Oregon's Priority Climate Action Plan and Implementation Grant
The second round of Climate Pollution Reduction Grants is to implement actions outlined in the Priority Climate Action Plan. DEQ submitted a competitive application to EPA in March 2024. In July 2024, EPA announced that Oregon would receive 100% of the grant funding requested. Oregon will receive $197 million to focus on three categories of work that are among the largest contributors to Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions: waste and materials, buildings, and transportation.
The Priority Climate Action Plan was guided by the extensive work that Oregon, local jurisdictions, and Tribes have done to date on planning for and implementing climate pollution reduction actions. DEQ and partner agency ODOE, collaborated with these agencies, Tribes and the public to identify actions that reduce climate pollution in Oregon in ways that most benefit local communities.
The goal was to submit a single large state grant application to EPA encompassing actions to reduce greenhouse gases across the state and in local jurisdictions. The measures in Oregon's PCAP do not represent all the necessary and needed actions for emission reductions in Oregon. The work funded through this grant is focused on achieving the maximum reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, providing benefits to surrounding communities and funding programs that are ready to receive funds and can be implemented quickly.
Next steps
Oregon is preparing to accept these funds, which includes hiring staff to support the implementation, contract development, and modeling for this grant. We anticipate funds will start infusing programs in 2025.
Additionally, building on the PCAP, Oregon is developing the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan to help achieve the state's climate goals, particularly the 2040 and 2050 goals. The CCAP is due to EPA in December 2025. The CCAP will consist of five workstreams, some of which are already underway:
- The development of an Oregon State Energy Strategy that identifies areas for improved alignment of energy policy, regulation, implementation, financial investment, and technical assistance to achieve decarbonization
- A greenhouse gas emissions reduction policy gap analysis of sources and sectors
- A Natural and Working Lands Carbon Sequestration Inventory
Continuation of community engagement to identify the barriers faced by Oregon's environmental justice communities to accessing and benefiting from clean energy projects and programs and to identify the greenhouse gas mitigation measures that are of most interest and benefit to those communities.