Dallas-Fort Worth officials are in a race against time to finish a plan that could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to fight air pollution.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments was awarded a $1 million Environmental Protection Agency grant last year to develop a regional climate action plan. Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Austin and the state of Texas are also expected to submit by March 1 their preliminary, short-term plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Using funding made available by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Environmental Protection Agency will award $4.6 billion to local governments and states to execute those climate action plans.
“Sometimes plans can be developed and they just sit on the shelf and nothing is ever done with them,” Savana Nance, a senior air quality planner for the council of governments, said during a recent public meeting. “The EPA made sure there was an opportunity where that didn’t necessarily have to happen because they set aside money to implement the plans that we developed.”
The agency anticipates doling out between 30 and 115 awards nationwide by December 2024. Four to 10 applicants are expected to receive the largest grants between $200 million and $500 million.
What are greenhouse gas emissions and what are some examples of air quality strategies?
Greenhouse gas emissions “… trap heat and make the planet warmer. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.”
The North Central Texas Council of Governments has an extensive list of potential pollution reduction projects on its website. Examples include:
- Reduce heavy-duty diesel vehicles with newer ones that meet emissions requirements.
- Provide local electric vehicle rebates to residents and fleet managers.
- Update roadways to minimize idling and improve safety.
- Subsidize individuals’ costs of public transportation (e.g. transit passes).
- Update building codes.
- Install cool roofs on government or commercial buildings (includes white paint for reflectivity, green roofs planted with vegetation).
- Decarbonize lawn equipment.
As one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, Dallas-Fort Worth should be eligible for the highest grant amount, said Susan Alvarez, environment and development director for the council of governments. Residents have already paid the taxes that will fund the federal program, she added.
“We feel pretty certain that we can come up with a viable list of good projects because a lot of communities have stuff they want to do, but they don’t have funding and they don’t want to raise taxes on their residents,” Alvarez said. “This is a way of using the taxes that have been paid, bringing them back and putting it to good use.”
The deadline to submit specific project proposals is April 1 — just a month after initial plans are due. In response to the tight schedule, the North Central Texas Council of Governments is holding a series of open houses to connect with cities, school districts and other organizations interested in grants for environmental projects.
Council staff hit Aledo and West Dallas in December and will head to Fort Worth, Granbury and Fate in January to answer questions about the planning process and solicit ideas from community members. Residents and government officials alike can also fill out an online survey to rank their priorities for air quality, energy use, agriculture and waste.
If you go
What: Open house on the Dallas-Fort Worth Air Quality Improvement Plan hosted by the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
When: 6-7:30 p.m. Jan. 18
Where: Hazel Harvey Peace Center for Neighborhoods, 818 Missouri Ave., Fort Worth. Residents can also fill out an online survey here.
Public input will help inform which air quality strategies are prioritized in the grant application, Alvarez said.
Her staff are also focused on incorporating the needs of what she calls “frontline communities,” or the low-income, disadvantaged communities that are often hit hard by rising temperatures, flooding disasters and other impacts of climate change. Assisting disadvantaged communities is part of how the EPA scores applications, Alvarez said.
“Maybe not everybody needs an (electric vehicle). Maybe somebody just needs transportation, period,” she said. “It’s really, really important that we have a wide range of solutions so that the different parts of our community are able to participate and are able to benefit from the work we’re doing.”
Departments across the city of Fort Worth are collaborating to prepare projects for the EPA application, environmental services spokesperson Lola McCartney said. Fort Worth is one of the few major U.S. cities without a climate action plan of its own, but city staff have been supportive of the regional plan, according to previous Fort Worth Report coverage.
“Through the planning process, city staff will continue to collaborate with NCTCOG staff for sector-specific strategies and unified communication efforts,” McCartney said.
After submitting its grant application in April, the council of governments will continue working on a more fleshed-out version of the climate action plan. The comprehensive climate action plan, due in summer 2025, must address all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions and identify near- and long-term strategies for reducing them.
By summer 2027, the council of governments will deliver a status report on how North Texas has implemented different strategies for improving air quality. All of these projects will help the region meet federal air quality standards, said Chris Klaus, senior air quality manager for the council of governments.
Last year, North Texas became a “severe” violator of the EPA’s 2008 ozone standard requiring metro areas to average at or below 75 parts per billion of ozone. The clock to avoid imposing $45 million in annual fines on the region’s largest polluters begins ticking in 2024 and wraps at the end of 2026, according to previous Fort Worth Report coverage.
That’s why it’s crucial for North Texas to pursue as much funding as possible from the EPA, Klaus said.
“For all the projects that we can implement through this program, it’ll help us in ’24, ’25, ’26,” Klaus said. “Those are the three years that EPA will look at for our next ozone attainment, if we’ve done a good job or not. If we don’t, then there are significant ramifications that will come to this region.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.