Provide funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA) to the utah department of environmental quality

This $74,744,454 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CFDA 66.046) program provides funding to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (UDEQ) to implement greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs and measures identified in a priority climate action plan. The key activities include:

Incentive programs to replace approximately 1,370 light-duty vehicles, deploy 400 electric commercial/government fleet vehicles, 20 electric refuse haulers, 40 electric delivery vehicles, 7 electric transit buses, and 30 electric school buses. Additional incentives will support the installation of 400 fleet and 700 multi-family/workplace electric vehicle chargers, as well as 2,000 electric bicycles and 15,000 electric yard equipment units. The award also includes a thief hatch replacement program for the oil and gas industry and an incentive program for 5,000 residential solar units.

Subawards totaling $2,494,528 were made to the University of Utah to administer the Intermountain Industrial Assessment Center program and to Weber State University to deploy a demonstration and assistance program providing energy efficiency and clean energy measures coaching services.

Description

The purpose of this award is to provide funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA) to the utah department of environmental quality. The recipient will implement greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs, policies, projects, and measures identified in a priority climate action plan (pcap) developed under a climate pollution reduction grants (cprg) planning grant. Activities conducted through this grant will benefit all residents and visitors to the state of utah through four main objectives: implementation of ambitious measures that will achieve significant cumulative GHG reductions by 2030 and beyond; pursuit of measures that will achieve substantial community benefits, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities; complementing other funding sources to maximize these GHG reductions and community benefits; and, pursuit of innovative policies and programs that are replicable and can be 'scaled up' across multiple jurisdictions. Activities:the activities include: creation of an income-qualified incentive program to replace approximately 1,370 light-duty vehicles for individuals; creation of an electric vehicle incentive program for the incremental cost of electric commercial and government light-duty fleets for approximately 400 units; creation of an incentive program for electric refuse haulers for commercial and government fleets, for approximately 20 units; creation of an incentive program for class 5 electric delivery vehicles for commercial and government fleets for approximately 40 units; creation of an incentive program for transit agencies to deploy approximately 7 electric transit buses; creation of an electric school bus pilot program to provide approximately 30 electric school buses to districts statewide; creation of an incentive program to deploy approximately 400 electric vehicle chargers for government and commercial fleets; creation of an incentive program to deploy approximately 700 electric vehicle chargers for multi-family dwellings and workplaces across the state; creation of an incentive program to deploy approximately 2000 electric bicycles for individuals; creation of an incentive program to deploy approximately 15,000 units of electric yard equipment; creation of a new thief hatch replacement program for the oil and gas industry, replacing approximately 600 thief hatches at oil facilities and 200 thief hatches at gas facilities; creation of an incentive program to deploy 5,000 residential solar units; subaward to the university of utah to provide funding for staff and training to continue the intermountain industrial assessment center stepwise program for five years; subaward to weber state university for staffing to deploy a demonstration and assistance program to provide cost-free, energy-efficiency and clean energy measures coaching services to individuals and small businesses for 5 years. Other activities to be performed include hiring and training udaq staff to implement proposed measures, preparing progress reports for EPA, conducting community engagement activities, developing public facing websites, handling multiple contract agreements with key stakeholders and program participants, establishing partnerships with key stakeholders, and distributing program information and accomplishments to the public through multiple channels of communication. Subrecipient:there are three subawards to be awarded for the grant. The first subaward is to the university of utah for administration of the intermountain industrial assessment center (iiac) stepwise program which provides funding to the program for five years in the amount of $2,494,528. This measure intends to voluntarily increase industrial/commercial-size facility energy efficiency efforts in utah. The program currently assists eligible commercial and industrial customers receiving a no-cost energy efficiency assessment that will identify measures for reducing energy usage and emissions. The intent of this PR