AGC Supports Robust Funding for Program and Five-Year Reauthorization
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it will open its application process for fiscal year 2011 National Funding Assistance Program diesel grants this November. The Agency expects to make $60 million available for the upcoming competition. Interested grant applicants should begin preparing their clean diesel retrofit proposals now and take advantage of several webcasts available on how to prepare a grant application. AGC has helped more than a dozen Chapters prepare applications for funds to help clean up their members' equipment (click here to see success stories). AGC is currently working with a broad coalition of stakeholders to encourage Congress to reauthorize the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) for another five years.
U.S. Congress passed the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to promote and financially support voluntary retrofit programs at both the national and state levels. (Seventy percent of the DERA money is for national competitive grants while the remaining 30 percent goes to states to be distributed as they see fit, many times through local departments of environmental quality or air districts.) The program was authorized for $200 million/year for five years, or $1 billion. Since that time, however, only $464.7 million has been appropriated to the EPA's Diesel Emissions Reduction Program; $164.7 million in annual appropriations and $300 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. President Obama's FY2011 budget calls for an additional $60 million in FY2011. AGC supports robust funding of $100 million for the program in FY2011 and seeks its reauthorization for another five years (see below).
Can AGC Chapters, Members Apply for an EPA Diesel Grant?
All AGC Chapters are eligible to apply for EPA's diesel retrofit funds. Other eligible entities include regional, state, local, tribal or port agencies with jurisdiction over transportation or air quality. Private construction companies cannot apply (on their own) for an EPA diesel retrofit grant. Interested AGC members are encouraged to contact their local AGC Chapters to discuss future opportunities to apply for federal funding.
AGC has worked with its Chapters and members to prepare applications for National Funding Assistance Program grants and together have been reasonably successful, considering the extremely fierce competition. In recent grant competitions, the amount of money requested has exceeded the amount of money available by seven fold.
AGC members may also consider partnering with other eligible agencies or organizations (e.g., state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, other nonprofit institutions) to put together a clean diesel project proposal. In addition, where a private fleet is contracted to work on a state, city or local government project, the pubic agency can apply for funds on behalf of the private sector fleet owner(s).
Recognizing that the next grant competition is just weeks away, now is the time for interested applicants to: (1) connect with federal/state air experts and equipment manufacturers and dealers; (2) find construction industry partners; (3) assess diesel fleets and identify eligible vehicles/equipment; (4) evaluate emission reduction technologies; (5) calculate cost-effectiveness and emissions reductions of any proposed clean diesel projects; and (6) ULTIMATELY draft competitive clean diesel project proposals.
Webcasts
Each diesel grant competition brings greater experience, which results in slight program changes to improve DERA's overall effectiveness and success. If you are thinking about applying for an EPA grant this year, you can learn about the details of the upcoming competition and get application tips from grant recipients that won in recent years by participating in webinars hosted by EPA and the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF).
EPA will be offering three webinars throughout November to discuss the upcoming Request for Proposals under the National Funding Assistance Program as follows:
- Regions 1 - 4: Tuesday, November 9 @ 10 am EST
- Regions 5 - 7: Tuesday, November 9 @ 3 pm EST
- Regions 8 - 10: Wednesday, November 10 @ 3 pm EST