New Report Celebrates EPA’s Unprecedented Successes Under Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda

Agency has awarded nearly $69 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create good-paying jobs, lower energy costs, save families money, and help communities overburdened by pollution

January 13, 2025

WASHINGTON – Today, Jan. 13, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its Investing in America Report (pdf), detailing the agency’s progress in implementing clean energy, pollution prevention, and environmental justice programs advanced by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act—two historic pieces of legislation reshaping the future of our nation’s clean energy economy and the future of our planet. It has been over three years since President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and last August marked two years since the President signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Since both historic pieces of legislation were signed into law, EPA has announced nearly $83 billion and awarded nearly $69 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create good-paying jobs, lower energy costs, save families money, support clean energy manufacturing, and help communities overburdened by pollution. These investments and resources are already at work in communities across the country delivering benefits to millions of Americans.

“I am incredibly proud of how efficiently and effectively EPA has mobilized efforts to invest nearly $69 billion into communities across America,” said EPA Acting Administrator Jane Nishida. “Because of President Biden’s vision and leadership, these funds will be making people healthier and more productive for many years to come. At the same time, we’re proving that investments in public health and the environment can create good-paying jobs, grow the nation’s economy, and advance private investment in clean technologies so that America leads the transition to a clean energy economy.”

All of EPA’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) programs are advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

Additional information on where EPA’s Investing in America funds are going, including location-specific project descriptions can be found on the Agency’s newly updated interactive map. The figures below reflect progress as of Jan. 6, 2025, as the agency continues its important work to protect public health and the environment.

Select Highlights from EPA’s Investing in America Programs

• EPA awarded $38.4 billion in funds appropriated by IRA—which represents 93% of grant funding made available by the law—including all $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards.  Awardees are now implementing their projects to reduce pollution and mobilize public and private capital for clean energy projects around the country.
• EPA has awarded $30.3 billion (82%) in FY 2022, 2023, and 2024 BIL funding, including $20.4 billion in State Revolving Fund capitalization grants; $3.3 billion for Superfund cleanups; and $2.8 billion for clean school buses across hundreds of school districts nationwide.
• EPA continues to award billions in BIL State Revolving Funds to ensure America’s water systems are safe, up-to-date, and more resilient to natural disasters, climate change impacts like drought, or cyber-attack threats. To date, the agency has awarded over $20 billion in funds to states, territories, and Tribes for water infrastructure projects. Since President Biden took office, nearly half a million lead pipes have been replaced nationwide, benefitting 1.2 million people.
• More than 8,700 clean school buses have been funded in nearly 1,300 school districts through EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus program, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting children from diesel exhaust and fumes.
• EPA has awarded 96% of its entire $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) Program, enabling states, Tribes and territories to implement community-driven solutions that dramatically cut climate pollution, create jobs in the transportation, energy, buildings, agriculture, and industrial sectors, and position communities to be more resilient and sustainable.
• EPA has awarded over $2.5 billion in IRA Clean Ports Grants to fund zero-emission equipment, sustainable infrastructure, and climate and air quality planning at U.S. ports, improving air quality and creating jobs while improving port competitiveness.
• EPA has awarded more than $3 billion in BIL funding to completely eliminate the longstanding Superfund backlog by starting new Superfund cleanup construction projects and expediting ongoing cleanup work at sites across the country. The agency also continues to leverage BIL resources to assess 921 brownfield properties and make 182 sites ready for revitalization.
• BIL provided $1.7 billion through FY 2026 to support all 12 of EPA’s Geographic Programs for critical watershed work. This includes more than $597 million of BIL funds to support environmental restoration projects around America’s Great Lakes, as well as $59 million of BIL funding for projects to help protect and restore Long Island Sound and local watersheds and wetlands.
• EPA has awarded nearly $2 billion in environmental justice funding for financial grants and technical assistance to implement its historic Environmental Justice program. The agency is delivering funds through a number of grant programs, including Community Change Grants—the single largest investment in environmental and climate justice in history—that opened for application in November 2023 and will help disadvantaged communities tackle environmental and climate justice challenges through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity.

These unprecedented resources will continue to have a lasting impact across the country that will stand the test of time and benefit communities of all backgrounds. For example:

• In Dalton, Georgia, Dalton Utilities has historically treated much of the wastewater effluent of the area’s carpet industry. That wastewater effluent has led to persistent concerns about chemicals in downstream portions of the watershed, including rivers that are no longer used for drinking water sources because of previous issues with PFAS. Dalton Utilities will receive over $1.5 million from BIL, through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), to conduct a series of pilot projects to test the effectiveness of various PFAS removal and destruction technologies.
• In Lansing, Michigan, the Lansing Board of Water and Light is investing $20 million of forgivable BIL funding to ensure its customers can access safe, reliable drinking water. With construction already underway, this project will include water main replacements, upgrading the ammonia system, building a new elevated water storage tank, and extending service from a newly constructed well.
• The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho will use $1.9 million of BIL funding through the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program to restore the Kootenai River at Ambush Rock site for traditional, Treaty and cultural use by Tribal citizens. Past environmental injustice from industrial, governmental, and commercial decisions left the property at Ambush Rock littered with metal debris and surrounded by contaminated soils. This restoration will enable Tribal citizens to use Ambush Rock to exercise their Treaty rights and for traditional and cultural ceremonies without fear of toxic exposure. The revitalization of Ambush Rock will help heal the land and assist with environmental recovery, prevent more contamination from reaching the adjacent lands and river, reduce the human health risks associated with using this site, and mitigate past industrial pollution.
• In Joppa, a community in South Dallas, Texas, founded by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, Brownfields Grant funding is being used to address contamination at the once segregated, now shuttered Melissa Pierce School to prepare for reuse of the facility as a vibrant community center.
• In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Southern University, a Historically Black University, will provide technical assistance to manufacturers in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, including on-site water quality assessments and workshops and offer practical solutions to reducing hazardous substances released to local aquifers.

These and other highlights from the last three years, as well as expected results for future investments, can be found in EPA’s Investing in America Report (pdf).

Additional Background:

Together, the BIL and IRA provided over $100 Billion in critical resources to EPA.

The IRA appropriation provided EPA with $41.5 billion at the end of FY 2022 for both external grants and internal federal spending.

The BIL statute stipulated that EPA would receive a BIL appropriation in each of the five fiscal years (FY 2022 through FY 2026) as shown below:

• FY 2022 - $14.1 billion
• FY 2023 - $11.2 billion
• FY 2024 - $11.6 billion
• FY 2025 - $12.0 billion
• FY 2026 - $12.0 billion

Funds awarded refers to any funding that has been obligated via grants or other programmatic demands (staffing, oversight, etc.).

Visit EPA’s Investing in America webpage for more information.