Because the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation (BIL) in 2021 and the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) 14 months in the past, the Division of Power’s (DOE) Workplace of the Underneath Secretary for Infrastructure division has handed out $67 billion in clear vitality funding. A plethora of grant alternatives for firms, startups and nonprofits can be found inside a number of departments of the DOE — from grid reliability upgrades to renewable vitality expertise manufacturing services. To safe among the $97 billion funding out there, candidates should courageous a bureaucratic system.
Step one to use? Earlier than filling out any particulars concerning the particular grants you’re focusing on, you could full a brand new part of the grant software known as the Group Advantages Plans (CBP). This supporting documentation is obligatory for requesting funding from BIL or IRA packages.
Let’s check out the specifics of the CBP, in addition to useful tricks to think about when embarking on a federal grant software tied to BIL or the IRA funding.
Keep up-to-date with the DOE
First, join any and all newsletters throughout the DOE that you simply assume could also be relevant. Every workplace inside its Workplace of the Underneath Secretary for Infrastructure has a number of particular newsletters that deal with its particular subject material and considerations. These embody the places of work of Grid Deployment, Cybersecurity, Power Safety and Emergency Response, Clear Power Demonstrations, Mortgage Packages Workplace, Manufacturing and Power Provide Chains, and State and Group Power Program. The newsletters announce grant software alternatives and related timelines; enroll right here.
The newsletters additionally announce time durations throughout which you’ll be able to present suggestions that in the end shapes a grant’s program design earlier than it goes reside. The DOE dubs this the “Request for Data (RFI)” stage of the grant course of, so look ahead to that window of time to train your voice.
Group Advantages Plans: The what and why
The DOE says it created the newly required CBP supporting doc for each BIL or IRA program funding software to make sure “broadly shared prosperity within the clear vitality transition.” The CBP holds a whole lot of weight throughout the software course of — about 20 p.c of a mission’s general rating, which performs a big position in figuring out a funding award. The rating facilities round how your software will implement the next 4 sections required for the funding:
Justice40 Initiative
In January 2021, the Biden administration launched the Justice40 Initiative, inside an government order, to confront and deal with the nation’s underinvestment in deprived communities. To that finish, throughout the CBP’s Justice40 part you could clearly show how funds will stream to particular deprived communities; create a timeline of when and the way anticipated advantages will stream to them; deal with the way to clearly observe the advantages as soon as they’ve been acquired; and deal with anticipated damaging environmental impacts for the communities in query.
Range, Fairness, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA)
The CBP’s DEIA part requires that you simply clearly clarify how the mission will incorporate range, fairness, inclusion and accessibility aims. This a part of the appliance ought to lay out how your mission might companion with companies that both serve or are run by underrepresented populations, in addition to instructional establishments and coaching organizations that serve individuals who face boundaries to jobs.
Good jobs
For the “Good Jobs” part, show how you plan to draw, prepare and retain the expert labor crucial to finish the mission. Moreover, you could make clear commitments to employee unionization, pathways to development and above common wages and advantages.
Workforce and neighborhood agreements
Lastly, workforce and neighborhood agreements require candidates to explain native stakeholder engagement plans, guaranteeing that each one native employees concerned within the mission are accounted for and guarded. Native stakeholders embody labor unions, tribal governments and community-based organizations.
If the DOE in the end selects your software, it should submit a abstract of the CBP on-line publicly for transparency and accountability. A DOE-hosted webinar offering extra detailed info could be discovered right here. I’ll dive into the particular grant alternatives in upcoming protection.
