Provide funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA) to king county, washington

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CFDA 66.046) program provides $49,999,975 to King County, Washington to implement greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs, policies, and measures identified in a priority climate action plan.

The key activities and deliverables under this award include: reducing operational emissions of existing multifamily and small commercial buildings; reducing embodied carbon in new building construction through government procurement practices and local building codes; creating systems to reuse wood at scale at the end of a building's life; completing 50 building retrofits, 300 heat pump water heater rebates, 130 building benchmark reports, supporting 25 independent multifamily building retrofits, completing 150 family care building retrofits, and electrifying 55 community buildings. The award also supports establishing carbon requirements for private construction in King County and the state building code, expanding a salvaged wood and recycling program, and creating a financing program to help multifamily and small commercial buildings decarbonize. The anticipated total GHG emissions reductions are 101,525 metric tons CO2e from 2025-2030 and 335,578 metric tons CO2e from 2025-2050, with a focus on benefiting low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Description

The purpose of this award is to provide funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA) to king county, washington. 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 king, kitsap, pierce, and snohomish counties, 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:this grant will reduce GHG emissions throughout the building lifecycle with targeted benefits to low- income and disadvantaged communities (lidacs) by (1) reducing operational emissions of existing multifamily and small commercial buildings; (2) reducing embodied carbon in new building construction through government procurement practices and local building codes, and (3) creating systems to reuse wood at scale at the end of a building's life to avoid emissions. Programs will prioritize lidac populations, maximize energy efficiency, and other non-energy benefits, including reducing energy burden, providing cooling benefits during extreme heat and wildfire smoke events.subrecipient:community grants, public building, competitive subaward. These awards will fund 30% to 50% of project costs to upgrade and electrify to lower greenhouse gas emitting options at community buildings in low income and disadvantaged communities. Workforce development subaward. This subaward provides services under both the measure #1 multifamily and measure #2 community programs. Subaward cost estimates include funding for the coalition for climate careers (C3) to will provide recruitment, oversight and management services for workforce program participants outside of king county, and for participant stipends outside of king county. Product testing, subaward. This item anticipates conducting testing with regional universities to test and certify products for use in building constructionoutcomes:the anticipated deliverables include completing 50 building retrofits, 300 heat pump water heater rebates, 130 building benchmark reports, supporting 25 independent multifamily building retrofits, completing 150 family care building retrofits, supporting electrifying 55 community buildings, creating capital project low embodied carbon requirements for king county government projects, establishing carbon requirements for private construction in king county and in state building codes, supporting industry participation in efforts to reduce embodied carbon related to construction, expanding a salvaged wood and recycling program, and establishing a financing program will help multifamily buildings and small commercial buildings decarbonize by connecting building owners to external financing options. The expected outcomes are broken down by program activity and are expressed in estimated metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) reduced. Total anticipated reductions are 101,525 MTCO2E from 2025 - 2030 and 335,578 MTCO2E 2025 - 2050. The intended beneficiaries of direct benefits, such as prioritization for retrofits, are primarily low-income and disadvantaged communities. However, there will ancillary benefits to the wider king, kitsap, pierce and snohomish counties through support of retrofits and building standards for community buildings and expansion of markets such as the expanded salvaged lumber program.