The Environmental Protection Agency released initial guidance on the design of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program.

• EPA will hold two competitions to distribute grant funding under the GHGRF: a $20 billion General and Low-Income Assistance Competition (between 2 and 15 awards) and a $7 billion Zero-Emissions Technology Fund Competition (up to 60 awards). EPA expects to open competitions for funding under the GHGRF in early summer 2023.

The Treasury Department released new guidance on IRA programs 48C: Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit, and 48(e): Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program.

• 48C: Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit; $10 bn cap with at least $4 bn reserved for communities with closed coal mines or retired coal-fired power plants. The notice provides a broad range of examples of projects eligible to apply for and ITC of up to 30%, including manufacturing of fuel cells, components for geothermal electricity and hydropower, carbon capture equipment, and critical minerals processing. The initial funding round will include $4 billion, with about $1.6 billion reserved for projects in coal communities. The application process will begin on 5/31/23.
• 48(e): Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program provides a boost of up to 20 percentage points to the ITC for solar and wind energy projects in low-income communities. The program will allocate 1.8 GW of capacity available in 2023 across 4 categories for solar and wind projects with maximum output of less than 5 MW. Application process begins in two phases: first for Category 3 and 4 in 3Q23, then for Category 1 and 2.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions and requirements for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s new Made-In-America network of electric vehicle chargers. Some of these new actions include:

• The Department of Transportation and Department of Energy finalized new standards for EV chargers making it so that everyone can use the network, no matter what car you drive or which state you charge in
• All chargers funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law must be built in the U.S.
• New funding totaling $7.4 million for 7 projects to develop medium- and heavy-duty EV charging and hydrogen corridor infrastructure.

The Treasury Department updated the vehicle classification standard for clean vehicle tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

• The vehicle classification standard will use the consumer-facing EPA Fuel Economy Labeling standard, rather than the EPA CAFE standard to determine whether a vehicle is a van, SUV, pickup truck, or other vehicle. This means that more electric vehicles, including SUVs by Tesla, Ford, and GM, are now eligible for the clean vehicle credits.