Federal government awards $150 million to reduce emissions in Virginia

Virginia Mercury
August 2, 2024, 1:03

This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.

Virginia is the recipient of two federal grants to capture climate changing emissions, one focused on methane and another on promoting natural solutions to capture carbon. … The funds, about $150 million, are from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, created by the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Investments such as this are paramount to ensuring communities across the region who are impacted the most have access to reduced climate and air pollution,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “We need our partners to help us in tackling climate challenges.”

Virginia’s funding is funneled through the Department of Environmental Quality, which is primarily working with Virginia Energy to use about $99.9 million towards methane capture from mined lands, and the Department of Wildlife Resources, to use $50 million on the land preservation component. The awarding to DWR is also part of a collaborative effort with the state of North Carolina that received a total of $421 million, with about $47.2 million going to The Nature Conservancy’s operations in Virginia.

DEQ said the state’s methane capture component could reduce 25 million tons of greenhouse gasses by 2050. The Nature Conservancy estimates about 28 million tons of GHGs — the same amount produced by about 6.6 million cars — will be captured between 2025 and 2050 through regional partnership.

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