The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced over $250 million in grants are available to fund plans for projects combating “climate pollution” on Wednesday, pushing the total number of climate grants announced this year to nearly $1 billion.
The funds include $3 million for every state, $1 million for each of the 67 most populated metropolitan areas and a total of $25 million to be distributed among Native American tribes, according to the EPA press release. The grants are among the first in President Joe Biden’s new $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
In total, the IRA allocated nearly $370 billion to fighting climate change. The act also includes, among other things, $80 million in additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service, $2o billion in incentives for farmers to not grow crops and $2.2 billion in reparations for black farmers.