By LSN Partners on November 20, 2022
Last week marked the first anniversary of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s (BIL) passage. To date, the Biden Administration has committed over $185 billion from the BIL for nearly 7,000 specific projects, reaching over 4,000 communities across the country.
This funding covers a wide variety of areas, such as: upgrading public transit and rail system, rebuilding roads, bridges, ports, and airports, replacing lead pipes to provide clean water, cleaning up legacy pollution, building cheaper and cleaner energy infrastructure, and more.
Specifically, the Biden Administration has:
- Launched 2,800 bridge repair and replacement projects across the country
- Announced $9 billion to upgrade America’s water infrastructure
- Awarded 20 companies in 12 states more than $2.8 billion to boost battery manufacturing
- Enrolled more than 14.8 million households in the Affordable Connectivity Program to expand affordable, high-speed internet access
- Allocated funds country-wide for more than 5,000 new clean and electric buses for schools and transit bus fleets
To better support and implement these projects, the Biden Administration released numerous action plans, including:
- Permitting Action Plan to strengthen federal permitting and environmental reviews
- Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan with over 20 commitments from federal agencies pledging to speed progress
- Infrastructure Talent Pipeline Challenge with over 250 commitments from companies to invest in workforce development
- WhiteHouse.Gov website with a repository of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law resources.
In New York, vital BIL-funded projects include the Clean School Bus program, where the EPA provided NYC with $18.5 million in rebate awards to three NYC school districts, allowing the purchase of 51 new clean school buses.
In California, the BIL allocated at least $100 million to improve high-speed internet access, although nearly 18% of Californians do not have an internet subscription. Additionally, experts estimate that as many as 5.6 million households in California are eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which cuts internet bills by up to $30 per month, or $75 for homes on Tribal lands, and provides a one-time $100 discount off a connected device.
In Florida, the BIL allocated $71.5 million in 2022 and 2023 through the NEVI program to build a network of EV chargers across the state. An additional $127 million allocation was made for clean energy, energy efficiency, and power in 2022. This includes $93.6 million for weatherization, $16.8 million through the State Energy Program, and $16.3 million to prevent outages and make the power grid more resilient.
We see the tip of the iceberg in federally funded clean energy infrastructure projects at the one-year mark of the BIL’s passage. We will stay on top of these developments as states continue to outline their plans for their federal BIL allocations.