The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to fund $40 billion of electric grid and sustainability projects. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks Zealan Hoover who is the EPA Administrator’s Senior Advisor for Implementation. They discuss the range of projects to be funded.

“We’ve received over $100 billion dollars in supplemental appropriations. A lot of that is for electric system decarbonization and other climate investments,” Hoover said. 

The amount far exceeds any effort the agency has undertaken in its 50-year history. 

“We have received tens of billions of dollars across multiple programs through the Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to both accelerate grid decarbonization and to get more zero emission equipment plugged into that grid.”

States, cities, and tribes are now competing for $4.6 billion worth of projects, with awards to be announced starting in July. 

“We’ve received over $30 billion dollars in project proposals so we will be funding the best of the best. We’re seeing really innovative proposals that are tailored to the needs of local communities and states,” Hoover said.

Zealan Hoover has led EPA's agency-wide implementation of more than $100 billion in programs authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to that, he worked in the private sector advising organizations on a wide range of strategic and operational matters with an emphasis on decarbonization and managing climate risk. Hoover graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.