Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program: A partnership for climate action

Was 2023 the year that climate change finally felt real for you? The extreme weather events from this past summer alone were impossible to ignore – smoke from more than 2,000 miles away covered the sun and the smell of wildfires was present across the entire state of Connecticut. 2023 made climate change a tangible, present reality rather than a distant, theoretical concern. Whether your home was flooded, stuck indoors during the air quality warnings from distant wildfires, or sweating through yet another 100-degree day, most of us wondered at least once - “Is every summer going to be like this?” It remains to be seen what winter will bring us this year. 

If we collectively continue on our current path, it’s quite likely last summer’s weather will become the new normal. Worse, it may eventually become considered mild.  Predicting the future is always fraught, but what we know is that we can control our decisions now and do our part to prevent worse, future outcomes. Addressing a global challenge like climate change can seem impossibly daunting, but it’s important to recognize we have the ability to take many smaller, concrete steps to begin reducing our emissions at the local level.  

CRCOG is partnering with the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments (RiverCOG) to develop a regional climate action plan through the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program, a new EPA administered program created through the Inflation Reduction Act.  Through CPRG funding, this regional climate action plan will develop an emissions reduction roadmap for communities across the entire Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area – essentially the middle swath of the state, running from the Massachusetts border to the shore. This plan will identify policies and projects within the purview of local municipalities to reduce their emissions.  

The first phase of the CPRG program requires submitting a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP for short) to EPA by March 1. The PCAP will contain near-term, implementation-ready projects and programs to begin reducing emissions at the local and regional level. The strategies could include installing electric vehicle or bus charging infrastructure, converting municipal vehicle fleets to EVs, decarbonizing municipal facilities through renewable energy projects like heat pumps, geothermal or solar, adopting up to date building energy codes, incentivizing energy efficiency retrofits for commercial and residential properties, tree planting programs, and many other potential initiatives.  

How would we actually pay for all those great ideas? The second phase of CPRG is intended to address that very question by providing $4.6 billion in competitive implementation funds nationwide. Municipalities and other regional entities interested in applying for these funds must have their potential projects first identified in their regional PCAP, which is intended to form the basis for implementation funding. If your community is interested in pursuing funds for implementation, it is critical we have feedback from municipalities in our region.  

Due to the size of our region and a compressed PCAP submission timeline mandated by EPA, virtual meetings and digital surveys are important tools we’re using to connect with town staff and residents. CRCOG and RiverCOG, in partnership with other councils of government across Connecticut and the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) held a virtual webinar on November 14, which you can view here. We have also begun surveying municipal staff leadership for their on the ground perspective on viable, near-term projects to include in the PCAP. We are also planning to hold an in-person event the second week in January and will keep you posted with further details through CRCOG’s social media channels or email Kyle Shiel at kshiel@crcog.org to join our Interested Parties list.  

Right now, there are two immediate ways to voice your perspective:  

1. Take the survey linked here. 

1. Join us next week for one of two virtual information sessions, where CRCOG and RiverCOG staff will be available to answer questions about the CPRG program and how to make the regional climate action plan a viable local roadmap for our communities. These sessions will be held on:  

• Tuesday 12/19 at 7pm – Register here. 
• Wednesday 12/20 at 8:30am – Register here.  

The CPRG program is an exciting opportunity to take action on one of the critical challenges of our time. We hope to engage with you on these efforts.  

Note: Thank you to Kyle Shiel, AICP and Caitlin Palmer, AICP for this post.