This message announces the availability of nearly $1.5 billion in current or upcoming funding opportunities for state, local, and tribal governments from the Department of Transportation (DOT), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Energy (DOE), Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities (TFN), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that can be used to support climate and energy initiatives, including transportation, energy efficiency, smart grid initiatives, and sustainability planning. For full eligibility, application details and contact information, please visit the links provided below.
DOT 2012 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Discretionary Grant Program – $500 million
Application Due: Pre-applications due February 20, 2012; final apps due March 19, 2012
Eligible Entities: State, local, and tribal governments, including U.S. territories, transit agencies, port authorities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), other political subdivisions of state or local governments, and multi-state or multijurisdictional groups applying through a single lead applicant.
The FY 2012 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants are for capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area, or a region. Projects that are eligible include, but are not limited to: (1) Highway or bridge projects eligible under title 23, United States Code; (2) public transportation projects eligible under chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code; (3) passenger and freight rail transportation projects; and (4) marine port infrastructure investments. Projects will be evaluated on primary criteria that include safety, economic competitiveness, livability, environmental sustainability, state of repair, and short-term job creation.
For more information, visit http://www.dot.gov/tiger/docs/fy12_tiger_nofa.pdf.
EPA Environmental Justice Small Grants Program – $1 million
Application Due: February 29, 2012
Eligible Entities: Federally recognized tribes, tribal organizations, and incorporated non-profit organizations.
EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program (EJSG) provides funding for projects that address local environmental and public health issues within an affected community. EPA will award grants that support activities designed to educate, empower, and enable communities to understand environmental and public health issues and to identify ways to address these issues at the local level. The long-term goals of the EJSG program are to help build the capacity of communities with environmental justice concerns and create self-sustaining, community-based partnerships that will continue to improve local environments in the future. Eligible applicants must demonstrate that they have worked directly with the affected community.
For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice ... p-2012.pdf.
DOE Smart Grid Data Access Funding Opportunity – $8 million
Application Due: March 1, 2012
Eligible Entities: State and local governments, federally recognized tribes.
DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory is seeking applications aimed at empowering consumers to better manage their electricity use by enabling access to electricity consumption data by customers and their authorized third parties, and providing or supporting the use of third-party tools and software products that use the available data to deliver a value-added service to the customer. Projects under this Funding Opportunity Announcement will be composed of two phases. Under Phase I, applicants will need to demonstrate the capability for electricity customers and/or designated third parties to access their usage data and the functionality of the applicant’s proposed tool or software product to provide this access. Phase II involves adoption of the tools and software products demonstrated in Phase I to an entire service territory, region, or community within the jurisdiction of the applicant or the utility partner of the applicant.
For more information, visit: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do? ... pId=130273.
USDA Forest Service 2012 Hazardous Fuels Woody Biomass Utilization Grant – $3 million
Application Due: March 1, 2012
Eligible Entities: State and local governments, federally recognized tribes, businesses, companies, corporations, school districts, communities, non-profit organizations, and special purpose districts.
The U.S. Forest Service requests proposals for wood energy projects that require engineering services. These projects will use woody biomass, such as material removed from forest restoration activities, wildfire hazardous fuel treatments, insect and disease mitigation, and/or forest management due to catastrophic weather events. The woody biomass shall be used in a bioenergy facility that uses commercially proven technologies to produce thermal, electrical, or liquid/gaseous bioenergy. The funds from this grant program must be used to further the planning of such facilities by funding the engineering services necessary for final design and cost analysis.
For more information, visit: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do; ... &mode=VIEW.
DOE Program Year 2012 Weatherization Formula Grants – $65 million
Application Due: Varies by program year, next due date is March 1, 2012
Eligible Entities: State governments and federally recognized tribes.
The purpose of the Weatherization Assistance Program is to increase the energy efficiency of dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential expenditures, and improve their health and safety. The priority population for the Weatherization Assistance Program is people who are particularly vulnerable, such as the elderly, persons with disabilities, families with children, high residential energy users, and households with high energy burden. In fiscal year 2012, a total of $65 million is available.
For more information, visit: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.d ... &mode=VIEW.
TFN’s Local Sustainability Matching Fund – $750,000
Application Due: March 5, 2012
Eligible Entities: Partnerships between sustainability directors and local, place-based foundations. A sustainability director can include any person who leads a multi-department and community-wide urban sustainability initiative from within a local government or an Urban Sustainability Directors Network member from throughout North America.
In partnership with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities (TFN) has announced the Local Sustainability Matching Fund. TFN is a membership organization that helps grant makers across North America advance strategies to create fair, prosperous, and sustainable regions and communities.
The Matching Fund will provide matching investments from national foundations on a competitive basis to build partnerships between local sustainability directors and local place-based foundations to advance discrete sustainability initiatives. Partnership investments will be between $25,000 and $75,000, with a 1:1 match required by one or more local place-based foundations. The pool will support approximately nine to ten partnership projects in the first year for projects to be carried out over a twelve-month period, in most cases.
For more information about the funding opportunity, visit: http://www.fundersnetwork.org/files/mis ... 111213.pdf.
FTA FY 2012 Bus and Bus Facilities Program: State of Good Repair Initiative – $650 million
Application Due: March 22, 2012
Eligible Entities: “Direct Recipients” within the meaning of FTA’s Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula program, states, or Indian tribes.
The State of Good Repair Initiative under the FTA FY 2012 Bus and Bus Facilities Program is designed to improve the condition of public transportation capital assets by providing financial assistance for recapitalization of buses and bus facilities. As part of the program, FTA will prioritize the replacement and rehabilitation of intermodal facilities that support the connection of bus service with multiple modes of transportation, including but not limited to rail, ferry, intercity bus, and private transportation providers. Criteria on which the projects will be evaluated include the project’s ability to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption/greenhouse gas emissions, or support emerging or advanced technologies and green building initiatives.
For more information, visit: http://fta.dot.gov/grants/13077_14330.html.
FTA FY 2012 Bus and Bus Facilities Program: Bus and Bus Facilities Livability Initiative – $125 million
Application Due: March 29, 2012
Eligible Entities: “Direct Recipients” within the meaning of FTA’s Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula program, states, or Indian tribes.
The Bus Livability Initiative under the FTA FY 2012 Bus and Bus Facilities Program makes funds available to public transportation providers to finance capital projects to replace, rehabilitate, and purchase buses and related equipment and to construct bus-related facilities. Projects should demonstrate a linkage to environmental sustainability, which will be evaluated based on the project’s ability to (1) improve energy efficiency or reduce energy consumption/greenhouse gas emissions and (2) to maintain, protect, or enhance the environment, as evidenced by environmentally friendly policies and practices used in the project design, construction, and operation that exceed the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
For more information, visit: http://fta.dot.gov/grants/13077_14331.html.
FTA FY 2012 Clean Fuels Program – $51.5 million
Application Due: April 5, 2012
Eligible Entities: Designated recipients in maintenance or non-attainment areas for ozone or carbon monoxide under section 107(d) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7407(d)), that are entities designated to receive federal urbanized formula funds under 49 U.S.C. 5307. Tribes, states and designated recipients may submit consolidated proposals for projects in non-urbanized areas. FTA will also accept applications from direct recipients, tribes, and state departments of transportation in attainment areas for projects that meet eligibility criteria under the Bus and Bus Facilities Program.
FTA’s FY 2012 Clean Fuels Program supports emerging clean fuel and advanced propulsion technologies for transit buses and markets for those technologies. The program funds projects from non-attainment or maintenance areas in achieving or maintaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and carbon monoxide. FTA also intends to further its environmental sustainability goals by allowing proposers in attainment areas that are not eligible under the Clean Fuels Grant Program to apply for projects that promote the use of clean fuels, and to fund those projects with FTA Bus and Bus Facilities program funds as appropriate.
For more information, visit http://fta.dot.gov/grants/13077_14329.html.
HUD Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants – $110 million
Application Due: April 10, 2012
Eligible Entities: Local governments, tribal entities, public housing authorities, non-profits, and for-profit developers that apply jointly with a public entity.
The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants Program is aimed at helping communities develop and implement a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy to achieve three core goals. The goals include transforming distressed public and assisted housing into energy-efficient, mixed-income housing that is physically and financially viable over the long term, and transforming distressed, high-poverty neighborhoods into viable, mixed-income neighborhoods with access to well-functioning services, including public transportation.
For more information, visit: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.d ... &mode=VIEW.
State and local officials interested in additional information about developing and implementing cost-effective climate and energy strategies that help further environmental goals and achieve public health and economic benefits may visit: http://www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate
Jessica Counts-Arnold
P2 Specialist
Office of Pollution Prevention and Solid Waste
U.S. EPA, Region 9
75 Hawthorne St., WST-7
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-972-3288 (phone)
415-947-3530 (fax)