all right good morning everyone thank you
for joining today's webinar on Ohio epa's climate pollution reduction grant program priority
resiliency plan I'll briefly introduce the agenda and logistics for today in terms of question
and answers and then I will hand it off to the Ohio EPA team so our agenda for today we will um
welcome all uh introduce some of the housekeeping in terms of question and answers introduce our
facilitators then proceed into an overview of the climate pollution redu
ction grant program a
summary of our stakeholder engagement completed for the program a review of the program goals
and benefits and lastly a review of the state implementation Grant next slide please so for
today you'll have noticed upon entering this meeting that you have been muted microphones and
cameras are disabled today's presentation will be recorded and shared and for participation
please use the chat function throughout the duration of the session we will be collecting
the questi
ons asked via this chat function and we'll have a question and answer at the end
of the session so looking forward to all your participation today and without further ado I
will hand it off to the Ohio EPA team thank you all thank you so much Aaron and two I did want to
thank Aaron M and the rest of the team at KPMG who has been assisting us as we've been putting
together this priority resiliency plan good morning everyone my name is Jessica Kinsley
deputy director of business and Regulator
y Affairs here at Ohio EPA so glad to be with you
all to discuss this uh plan and the exciting opportunities that we hope that it will present
for the state of Ohio uh with me here today we also have Brooke White and Bob hoden Bosie I
will let Brooke and Bob introduce themselves as well hi I'm Brooke White um I'm a supervisor in
the division of air pollution control with Ohio EPA and I have the great opportunity of
supporting Jessica and Bob and developing our uh cprg program glad to be her
e with
you today and I'm Bob hoden Bosie I head up the air program at Ohio EPA and I want
to thank you all for uh joining us on this webinar to explain our uh what has been
going on with our cprg activities thank you right so the climate pollution reduction
grant program one of my main tasks here at Ohio EPA over the past year plus has been keeping
track of federal funding opportunities that are being offered through the inflation reduction
act as your mayor may not be aware back in August
of 2022 Congress passed and the president
signed into effect the inflation reduction act also known as the IRA the inflation reduction
act provides north of a quarter of a trillion dollars in energy security and environmental
programs that are going to be rolled out over the next 10 years and given the nature of energy
security and environmental we have seen a lot of these programs being routed through uscpa and
though uh I said that it's going to be rolled out over the next 10 years we ha
ve seen a lot of
action since August of 2022 one of the programs in particular that we have been keeping track
of is the climate pollution reduction grant program and if you go to the next slide so the
climate pollution reduction grant program also known as the cprg is a 5 billion doll Grant
opportunity that USPA proposed under uh the inflation reduction Act and the way that they
proposed this program was a little interesting so they really had two different phases the first
phase was a pl
anning phase in this they set aside funds for states and the 67 most populous uh msas
throughout the nation to develop key deliverables those deliverables are things like a priority
resiliency plan comprehensive resiliency plan and then a status report that first phase
is then going to to support and open the door for phase two of this program which is a
competitive implementation Grant phase so the state of Ohio with Ohio EPA as the lead uh
was successful in going for the $3 million set as
ide planning Grant and as I said part of
the planning Grant is to develop our priority resiliency plan this is the first for the state
of Ohio uh so we're really glad that you're able to join us here today the slide on the screen
kind of hi highlights the different components of both the priority plan comprehensive plan
and then uh the status report the priority plan is due March one uh we are kind of uh under an
expedited timeline given the way that this grant program has been structured s
o really glad that
you all are able to join us here today to kind of go over the findings of this priority plan
so uh what that entails things like greenhouse gas inventory for priority sectors Quantified
reduction measures uh lowincome disadvantaged communities benefits analysis and also reviewing
the authority to implement as well and too I did mention you know the state of Ohio was successful
in going for the planning Grant but when it came to uh the msas that were eligible to apply here
in the state of Ohio what that meant was Cleveland Columbus Cincinnati and Dayton were also eligible
to apply for $1 million planning grants to work towards developing the same deliverables so if
you go to the next slide so now we're going to cover exactly how we kind of went about developing
the state's priority resiliency plan and a key to developing our plan was stakeholder engagement so
again we thank you all for joining us here today to continue the conversation that we've been
havin
g over the past several months over the past few months we have held 39 meetings and that
W ranges from things like one-on-one discussions small group forums large webinars to reach 100
plus stakeholders across all regions of Ohio in developing the states plan it was Paramount to
us to really be a voice for the state of Ohio take into consideration what individuals wanted
to see in our priority residency plan what types of measures would best serve the citizens here
in Ohio to create a heal
thier uh future Ohio we also had a public survey that was out there
we were able to get 96 responses back to that survey which was greatly appreciated to help
us better inform our plan and two when we're talking about stakeholder groups that includes
a wide variety of you know other state agencies Metropolitan planning organizations economic
development organizations utilities elected officials community- based organizations and other
interested stakeholders and Advocates across the state s
o now when it comes to the details of the
plan itself I'm going to turn it over to Brooke thanks Jessica um so at this point I'm going
to delve into some of the reduction measures the near term reduction measures that uh Jessica
was mentioning so and how they're laid out in the plan what we focus on um so this content is
all from the priority resiliency plan that uh will be submitted to USA on March 1st but this
information does also help to inform um the uh implementation Grant fund fundin
g applications
that will be due April 1st um so these re uh reduction measures are a key takeaway of that
priority resiliency plan as they will allow both the state and communities across Ohio to
take action on reducing greenhouse gases um and also to continue their own internal planning
um for addressing climate so this slide lays out um what we have identified as priority measures
for the state I'll also go over a longer list of other measures um that really give voice to
a lot of those
communities across Ohio as well um so the uh priority reduction measures that
you see here are broken out by economic sector that's um what you see in the left hand column
um for example Transportation or electric power production um the state has really prioritized
the top three sectors Transportation electric power production and buildings because in creating
our green greenhouse gas uh inventory we saw that these uh sectors comprised 80% of the source
of greenhouse emissions from across
Ohio so we really wanted to address those big buckets of
emissions um we did also hear very clearly from many communities um that waste and agricultural
sectors were also key to those communities and so we included um a few a couple uh measures from
these key sectors for those communities also and these priority reduction measures are described
in um detail within the priority resiliency plan next slide please so I also want to share the
longer list of measures that were included within the
priority priority resiliency plan this is a
lot of the information that we heard uh during our stakeholder uh engagement um so these are of
interest to many small and Rural municipalities as well as community groups um and we wanted to
be inclusive of that voice of Ohio and so we kept a running list of all measures that were of
interest to different communities um to make sure that we were including them in this plan and it
was important for us to do this because to enable any other um gov
ernment entities to go after
implementation funding they will need to refer back to this plan and show that their intended
um implementation measure was acknowledged in the state plan covering their geography um you can see
we have a wide variety of measures here that cover electric power production building uh buildings
industrial processes um and also enabling feasibility studies to cover uh many of these
sectors and many of these activities next slide please so the list is continued here
and as
you can see there's some sectors that were not included in the priority measures such as land
use um and more of a focus on agriculture so again these measures uh enable communities to go after
implementation funding um that as the applications are due April 1 so really empowering lots of
communities here all right next slide please so now I'm going to delve a little bit more into
details of some of those priority measures next slide please so first we wanted to discuss why
this ma
tters to Ohio what we are hoping to achieve by implementing these reduction measures um we
really have a focus on building a healthier Ohio um and reducing pollution is key to the health
of our citizens um and communities across the state we also want to improve quality of life
for all Ohio communities um and that includes doing things like improving access to education
jobs and other services to support this quality of life we're also interested in enhancing
Ohio's Workforce through Market
transort uh transformation um and so that includes Workforce
Development that really focuses on a lot of emerging Technologies um and helping to support
that transition of the workforce we also want to focus on addressing energy burdens um in lowincome
communities and for small municipalities um we've really heard that this is a deep need across
many of those communities um another thing that we really want to focus on and that's woven
throughout our work um throughout the report and as we
consider implementation funding is how
do we support those lowincome and disadvantaged communities across Ohio in terms of all these
different topics their quality of life reducing pollution um enhancing access to jobs next slide
please so here you see laid out some of the focus that we had in the priority resiliency plan under
transportation as a priority sector so we were really to focus on both Fleet modernization
as well as Transportation effic efficiencies throughout Ohio and Fleet mo
dernization includes
a variety of technologies that can be brought to bear including alternative fuel vehicles zero
emission vehicles um such as electric vehicles as well as anti-idling technology and the necessary
supporting infrastructure um for these vehicles we also wanted to include items that help support
overall Transportation efficiency large focusing on infrastructure changes um these measures are
fairly Broad and that's intentional to um really support uh a host of applications fr
om across
Ohio that we will have our own specific uh focus when it comes to looking at implementation Grant
applications next slide please for electric power production again we have a wide set of activities
we were really wanting to give um the opportunity to F Focus both on installations at utility
scale as well as focusing on um distributed energy so on-site installations in order to
support emissions reductions across Ohio um some of these activities include focusing on
uh transmission
grid Investments as well as public facility Investments uh focusing a lot
on the Workforce Development to help support um implementation installation and um engaging
with utilities and also technical assistance for communities that are interested in uh projects in
these areas next slide please so building Energy Efficiency is um really key in Ohio we see it as a
lwh hanging fruit and also as I mentioned is that deep need for a lot of rural uh municipalities
and communities Um this can help
uh reduce energy burdens so there are a lot of uh rural
municipalities that don't have good functioning things like HVAC and their buildings um and
they're really burdened by a lot of those energy bills um as well as increasing the quality of life
in terms of the experience in these buildings um another supporting activity that isn't mentioned
here is uh potentially completing um upfront work that needs to be done on facilities or buildings
in order to enable things like Energy Efficiency
work or renewable energy installation on site so
these are things like adjusting the any structural issues in the building as well as uh any things
that would cause internal air quality issues such as asbestos um to support those ongoing
projects that focus more on uh greenhouse gas reductions next slide please so for Waste as
I mentioned we really heard a deep interest in this from uh communities across Ohio for
composting we heard from uh a diverse range of of communities both urban and r
ural very
interested in um reduction measures focusing on Co composting we also heard significant interest
in waste to energy initiatives especially from a lot of rural communities and so activities in
this sector could include things like investments in directly in projects to be implemented as well
as supporting education and Workforce Development and technical assistance to really enable this
to take off in a lot of different communities these next slide please throughout this work um
w
e've really forged a lot of working relationships focusing on this program and potential uh
potential projects for imp implementation with multiple state agencies and so these
agencies can play integral roles um in terms of further development of resiliency plans as well
as implementation of measures and their roles can vary from supplying data to understand potential
impact of reduction measures implementation um as well as uh potentially playing a key role
in the ACT actual implementation
of measures um we've also forged a lot of Partnerships with
other folks that we've talked to throughout our stakeholder engagement including msas Community
groups um small municipalities so there's really a lot of communication and a lot of support going
into this and we're always very appreciative of all the uh participation that we have for
many communities and agencies next slide please and here I'll be handing it back over to
Jessica hi everyone me again uh so now to talk about the imp
lementation so as I mentioned
before that second phase so by preparing the priority resiliency plan for the state of
Ohio it then allows projects to uh be able to be applied for implementation funding under this
second phase uscpa has set aside $4.3 billion in a competitive grant program with approximately
30 to 115 awards that are going to range from 2 million to 500 million in a award amount for
a general competition eligible organizations across the state include uh State entities
msas
other governmental entities you know municipalities cities and coalitions as well
to directly apply to uh Implement one of the measures identified under a prior uh priority
resiliency plan so with the state of Ohio and what we kind of looked at with the key sectors
when it comes to an implementation project that the state wants to apply for We Believe focusing
in on things like public Fleet modernization and public building Energy Efficiency and production
upgrades uh would make make the mo
st sense for the largest uh reach of a longlasting impactful
program here in the state of Ohio especially utilizing uh the feedback that we received
through our early stakeholder engagement we think that there is a lot of support for that
uh so in the next month plus until April one we will be working to really get an application
uh figured out centered around those two efforts public modernization and then the public building
Energy Efficiency and production upgrade now when I'm talking ab
out production upgrades that
also includes an allowance for things like renewable energy solar deployment on um public
buildings noted on there as well is industrial efficiency upgrades the state of Ohio has
been approached to be a part of a coalition one of those larger applications uh centered
in on Industrial efficiency upgrades so that is also something that we are considering
uh being a member of that Coalition so it will be multi multi-state uh application large
probably centered on
one of those larger award amounts in the $500 million range so there is
a lot of activity that will be occurring over the next um month plus but we wanted to at
least uh kind of get this information out to see who might be interested to in potentially
participating in continuing the conversation centered around these implementation grants so
we will be holding additional uh opportunities for engagement conversations but definitely if
this is something that you'll be interested in we've got
information too about how to contact us
as well as information about our cprg web page so I would highly encourage you to look at that
so when it comes to uh who else can apply as we mentioned too the msas are also uh preparing
their own uh resiliency plans under this program so they are able to apply to enact measures under
those plans and two entities would be eligible to directly apply potentially for uh one of those
Awards if USPA has said if there wouldn't be a duplication of efforts k
ind of is what they're
looking for so basically if it would be something that would be applied for in another application
it's likely that uscpa would fund one of those so that's why uh coordination is key when it comes
to evaluating how to apply for these next steps of the implementation grants and we appreciate
everyone taking the time to stay engaged and involved in the process that we're pursuing so
with that I think we might be ready to have our Q&A and I believe there are
questions c
oming in through the Q&A excellent yes thank you Jessica and Brooke uh
for this next phase I will go ahead and read some of the Q&A questions um that have already been
inputed but everyone please continue to use the Q&A function to submit further questions
so first question um I'll cover both the question and the answer of in terms of logistics
someone asked will slides be emailed out after the presentation all registrants will be receiving
a link to this recording following this webinar so
you'll be able to see the presentation slides
as well as hear all the audio from the recording today our next question I'll turn
to brooken Jessica someone asked can new measures be introduced into the
priority resiliency plan after March 1st or will those be incorporated
into the comprehensive resiliency plan that's a great question and definitely something
that we tried to take into consideration as we were developing the priority resiliency plan
was to kind of cast a broad net when it
came to the measures that were Incorporated we
will have additional time when it comes to the comprehensive plan to further kind of build
out the measures that have been introduced I don't know Brooke if you have anything else that
you'd like to add to that or Bob too Bob is on as well for questions um no I think that
covers it um as we said this PRI resiliency plan will be submitted to usepa on March 1 so
that's the deadline that we're facing coming up but we really do hope to do um or we
plan
to do a lot of very broad Outreach for the comprehensive resiliency plan also so we would
love to have conversations moving forward as well thank you brke and Jessica another
participant asked will communities within the 3 C's msas and covered by those respective
plans be able to receive funds from Ohio EPA that would be the goal um so it's not that
you would be excluded if you would be in one of those msas uh we would be applying for a grant
that would Encompass the entirety of the s
tate of Ohio thank you for clarifying another participant
in regard to the implementation grants asked if universities would be eligible to apply so
we're still working on how to structure the implementation Grant application but
questions like that are very helpful uh if we see the need out there right now
as we said we're really kind of focused in on the public universe so I think that's
something that we could kind of tease out uh further so if it would be a public institution
I would t
hink that there would be flexibility there thank you another related question to clarify a
participant asked if the state is awarded the implementation grant that includes public
Fleet modernization can a city apply for funding through the state to modernize
their own Fleet fantastic question and thank you so much yes so when we're talking
about public entities we're viewing that as things like State uh State Vehicles
state fleets counties municipalities schools even things like publicly ow
ned
waste management and I think the question about you know universities too raises that
um question and increases the universe as well but yes I'm not just
talking solely about state EXC and and if I could add the just overall
there is a limited number of grants that US EPA is going to uh issue and they have
a certain range a lower range um and an upper range and uh so um they that
kind of request will need to go through one of uh either the state or one of the local
agencies that are g
etting funds but US EPA isn't going to be accepting hundreds of different
applications for uh grants uh throughout the country thank you Bob another participant
would like to know what other states are in the large industrial Energy Efficiency
Coalition is it mostly other Midwestern states so I uh since it's kind of a
dynamic situation I will say right now it does appear to be other Midwestern
states likely other region five states as well thank you another implementation
Grant question is
Ohio EPA aware of any other state agencies that may have
submitted at notice of Interest or are planning to submit an implementation Grant
so we have kind of noted that we're likely the lead agency when it comes to a Statewide
application for Ohio um we are uh working in partnership with the Ohio air quality
Development Authority as you may or may not be aware we're also working in partnership
with them to pursue additional Federal funding under the IRA under programs through the
greenhou
se gas reduction fund as well thank you Jessica yep but too sorry I I just
want to kind of reiterate the importance of collaboration too at the state level so I know
there was that one slide where we kind of hit on the conversations that we're having and the
Partnerships that we're forming and that's definitely something that we identify is key
to success in going for these implementation grants is working in coordination with some
of these other agencies as well particularly things when we
're looking at you know Fleet
modernization or um charging infrastructure buildout we need to have odat at the table
the Department of Transportation and our Drive Ohio program to best see you know how
can we position Ohio what are the gaps that exist and other funding uh mechanisms that
we can utilize this program to address and fill great circling back to the industrial
efficiency Coalition application recognizing its Dynamic but a participant is wondering what
may be included as upgrade
s under that umbrella yeah and to I will say um Dynamic so as you
noted Aaron uh but really when we're talking about efficiency upgrades it's things like
um building improvements and upgrades kind of what we would be looking at to with the public
building aspect making some of those similar upgrades uh just to ensure that the buildings
themselves are operating as efficiently as possible great thank you currently just reviewing thank you so much all for submitting questions um to
pull out a
next one that's not duplicative a participant asks in regard to
the implementation grants would an agency such as a health department or solid waste
District be able to apply for implementation funds I you would be able to direct ly appli
to uscpa but keep in mind that um we had that one slide where I think it's 50 to 115 awards are
what uscpa is setting aside and the way that they have structured it is that there are basically
four different tiers where it's like I don't want to get these
numbers wrong uh something
like 200 to 500 million is considered tier a uscp is allocating something like six to 10 uh WS
in that tier tier B then is between like 100 and 200 million there might be 7even to 13 Awards set
aside in that tier so on and so forth where they have more award amounts allocated to the lower
tier that might be you know that 2 million to 50 million range um so I would definitely
encourage you to take a look at the notice of funding opportunity if you would potentially
want to pursue an individual application and we could have a standalone conversation too if you
would be interested about you know what project might you be thinking about do we think that
that's something that might be better addressed through the implementation application that we're
proposing through the state versus something stand alone hopefully that helps great thank you and for all questions um
with whom we're answering live should you have any doubts or followups please continue t
o write
in the chat and we will hope to get to them yes I agree so relatedly and Jessica are happy to also
Circle back on this a participant is wondering which funding tier the state plans to pursue so
uh entities had the option to submit a notice of intent to uscpa to indicate kind of what we're
thinking about when it comes to the award amount and what we submitted in that optional notice of
intent is that at this point in time we would be pursuing pursuing what we believe would be a
tier
B project likely looking at somewhere in the 190 uh million doll range to support the
uh Statewide proposal that we would be putting forward now again everything's moving quickly as
we work to further kind of refine the scope of the project and to gauge the interest that's out
there we really need to rightsize our requests so that would be subject to change but right now
I think we would fall somewhere in that tier B range thank you another participant would like to know what
first steps o
r advice would you recommend for municipalities to do in order to pursue funding
is there a bit of homework that we should have done before beginning that we should do
excuse me before beginning now would this be considered directly applying to uscpa for
an implementation Grant on your own under our plan or would it be potentially applying through
Ohio EPA for a grant I guess would be the first question because there's kind of two different
um paths that we're potentially on right now so I
would say if it would be going on the path
of applying through Ohio EPA if you know KN on wood were successful in applying for that
larger implementation Grant application what I would recommend is to stay engaged with us um
we have our cprg website that we'll be sure to get information out in our follow-up to I don't
think we've got the QR code on this slide deck but we will also be including that um but stay
engaged and uh up to date on where things are progressing we do anticipate receiv
ing funds
under this award knock on wood if successful um by end of year 2024 I think USPA is targeting
October of 2024 right now now when it comes to uh potentially applying for a grant through US EPA
specific I would highly encourage you to check out uspa's website on the cprg implementation program
there are a lot of fantastic resources there I've mentioned the notice of funding opportunity
that's really kind of the nuts and bolts of this funding program what uscpa anticipates to
have i
n the application as well as as they have a frequently asked questions document that has a
lot of great information in there as well about how to kind of approach this grant program and
how to look at it um when it comes to applying at uh Municipal level as well and view us as
a resource so we're here to help as well so if that's something that you would like to pursue
we've got brooken mines contact information on the last slide feel free to reach out and even
if you're thinking about a pr
oject not quite sure how this might work we can kind of have
that brainstorm session with you to see if not this funding program what else might be out there
because as I mentioned before under the inflation reduction act we're seeing a lot of activity under
a wide variety of programs being uh proposed right now thank you Jessica another question related to specifically
the fleet modernization implementation Grant is would this include hybrid vehicles or only
electric vehicles great questio
n and I think to have a wider reach that's definitely something
that we're considering is looking beond just the zero emissions vehicles and also uh having a
way to Encompass things like hybrid vehicles or even as we mentioned before that anti-idling
technology now that is something that when it comes to the overall structure of the program
that we're also trying to figure out how to further um make the money more impactful and
last a bit longer uh knowing that we're trying to build somethi
ng so we are looking at what type
of financial model can we Implement so potentially you know taking things into consideration like
if an entity is in a loow income or disadvantage community and wants to upgrade fleets to be
zero missions maybe we would be able to have um a mechanism for that to be done solely as a
grant so principal forgiveness versus if they would potentially want to utilize a technology
that might not have um as impactful of reduction measures associated with it somethin
g like a
hybrid um or anti-idling technology potentially then we would be able to you know have some
of a grant component and then maybe a loan at a 0% interest rate reduced interest rate
to help make that a possibility so those are all uh key considerations that we're kind
of working through with trying to develop what this program would look like so yes stay
tuned for more information please be thinking about this too if it would be something you'd be
interested in um so we can kind of c
ontinue the conversation excellent and I see a question in
the chat if I can please ask ask it to myself uh and the team one of the questions is we have
some sites that would be IDE ideal for solar but our infrastructure of the building is very old
any grants or financial help for upgrading the building for solar that's exactly what we want
this program to be able to do is to get those buildings up to date ready to go for the solar
deployment as well so those will be allowable expenses that
we would Envision being addressed
through this program as well to again make these um potential projects a reality because we totally
understand that those are considerations out there and there are barriers out there too for some
of these Energy Efficiency upgrades rades so as Brooke mentioned you know as bestus abatement is
something that we're trying to evaluate how we can also address that because we know that that's
a barrier for some of these um upgrades that need to happen for a tru
ly efficient building but
it's a large cost as well so how can we structure our program to be kind of all-encompassing to
remove those barriers make it as easy to deploy as possible also we want to have um funding set
aside to to to help with some of the audits or assessments that would need to be done to help
create um I'm sorry to help have these projects be ready to deploy as well so definitely technical
assistance is a key component to success for deployment that we are working into our
approach
as well uh and two I did see Brooke put a note in there um but something that you know if this
would be something that you would be interested in definitely continue the conversation but we
would ask that you would potentially consider providing a letter of support too because I
think that will only bolster our application to show to USA that the need and the desire is
out there here in the state of Ohio for these projects great thank you Jessica we have a few questions that are u
m
related wondering if community-based organizations or other nonprofits may be able to apply for Ohio EPA implementation grant
funding should it be awarded on behalf of municipalities I think that's an
interesting question and definitely something that we would maybe need to
have kind of a standalone conversation to maybe grasp a bit more about the
relationship and how that would be working great and then on that in that vein to
clarify and recognizing um it may still be be being worked o
ut will the state's implementation
plan application result in opportunities for public entities to apply to Ohio EPA for funding
or Are there specific projects already identified we want you to come to us with projects so
that's what we're trying to um kind of plant the seed now get the word out there about kind of
what we're thinking about so you can be thinking about what types of projects would you like
to utilize this funding for as well and two I kind of mentioned that we're trying to
build
a program here so I would really like this to have um kind of a similar framework to the state
revolving fund that we have for water projects water infrastructure funding projects so there is
a component of um there would be a consideration for loans in this program so there would be money
coming back into the program as well so we would then be able to further uh the longevity
of this program to fund projects into the future thank you I'd like to pause for a
minute and see Jessica o
r any other members of the Ohio EPA team scrolling through
some of the questions here if there are any others that you'd like to pull out and I'll
likewise look through to see if there's another one unrelated to what we've asked asked if a
d or if a draft version of the plan would be posted and yes that is our goal but we also
have our team working to have a little bit more palatable of a document as well like a
one to two page document that would really consolidate the key information for
entities you
know like municipalities um so we hope to have that as well ready to go and be published on
our website along with uh the more technical report thank you another question is someone
is wondering how should msas or cities and municipalities ities across the state best
coordinate with Ohio EPA on implementation proposals to avoid overlap to us I know we've
got our MSA uh State work group when it comes to the cprg for other eligible entities who um
we're working towards the plann
ing application so feel free to reach out to Brook or myself
have a conversation we plan to definitely be getting the word out more uh now that
our imple now that our priority plan is pretty well in place to be submitted
to uscpa by March 1 we're shifting gears more to the implementation side to work
out more of those details about what the program is hopefully going to look like
here so definitely feel free to reach out someone asked what about hydrogen
fuel cell technology for future emi
ssion Transportation buses cars um and
those are all great thoughts and questions that we're considering when it
comes to the umbrella of alternative fuel vehicles so any input any thoughts that
you have on that feel free to send our away thank you and I just had a question and
lost it having so many great questions come in thank you all again um where was it I've got
another one if you want me to go while you're looking please do yep are you able to utilize
the Ohio air quality Developmen
t Authority as a state energy financing institution to help fund
your projects that is definitely something that we are looking into is really viewing this
as a partnership with the Ohio air quality Development Authority in working to develop
how the framework should look and what other incentives what other programs are out there
too to really provide the most robust package uh when it comes to funding these programs
to make them a reality so great question there we have another question s
urrounding the
format of the implementation grant program and wondering should there be loan funds involved
how is Ohio EPA thinking about structuring these to serve all communities great consideration
and great question so as we mentioned a key for this program and many of the other programs is
really how can we be the most impactful especially to areas like low-income and disadvantaged
communities we want to make this as easy to deploy as possible so I think that's what's so
important to
o about having this be a state Le project so we have the support and re resources
too not only Ohio EPA but as I mentioned you know the Ohio air quality Development Authority
looking at the Ohio Department of Transportation really viewing this as you know a team Ohio
approach to make it the most impactful to all areas of Ohio especially knowing the low-income
disadvantaged communities we need to have that be a key consideration so when we're trying
to kind of structure and make these things
a reality as I mentioned before things like having
the technical assistance ready and available and set aside under this funding program to
do things like you know energy Audits and assessments how can we make this happen here
in these communities and then two to kind of build off of that um looking at things like
principal forgiveness for areas that would be you know cons uh kind of in that umbrella
so basically what I'm saying when I say what I mean when I'm saying principal forgiveness
is
it would be straight grant for those areas if you would be pursuing things like zero emissions
technology or upgrades or solar um based upon you know an energy audit or assessment that we
would also be able to fund under this program but any further ideas of how we can help make
this a reality in your area feel free to reach out we want to have those conversations as
we're working to develop this application to again really be a voice for all of Ohio and
capturing how can we make this b
est work here great thank you another participant wants to
know for for-profit corporations how may they be able to participate
in providing technology or services in relation to reduction measures
as part of the priority resiliency plan I think that's a great question uh and
definitely something that again I would encourage you to stay engaged about how these programs are
really looking to um come to fruition here as we work through the details of the implementation
applications as I said
right now when it comes to eligible entities we're really kind of focused
in on that public sector and focused um for having those you know state agencies counties
municipalities schools be kind of the eligible applicants to the table but I've alluded to it
technical assistance is key too so there will be opportunities you know I Envision having to have
you know scopes of Works posted through Ohio buys for the support that will be necessary to deploy
some of these programs so I would say s
tay tuned um but if the question is more so about funding
mechanisms for private agencies or entities in the same vein I would highly encourage you to
look at other programs that might be available across the state I know you know as I mentioned OA
qda the air quality Development Authority is our partner for the implementation application um and
I do know that they have resources available for private entities too to directly apply for funding
as well so I would encourage you to uh look int
o that thank you Jessica there are a handful of other questions
here that I'm not sure we'll have time to explicitly answer for the rest of today's
session so as Jessica mentioned please do get in touch with any ideas or additional questions
we may not have covered in full today uh I know we um will be um staying in touch of regarding
next steps and if we can go to the next slide please quickly um a participant did ask if we
can provide an email that we could communicate with Ohio EPA on th
e plan so wanted to um skip
ahead to this side while the Ohio EPA team um scans the rest of the questions to see if we
want to pull any last ones forward but after today you can visit Ohio epa's cprg website for
additional information on the program which we will be updating and your questions here today
will really inform the information that we will populate this website with moving forward too so
thank you again for your participation and you can also find both Brooke and Jessica's conta
cts here
today I'll turn it over to Jessica and Brooke as well for any closing comments I'll quickly scan
the chat um thank you Jessica thanks Aaron um I guess in closing all I would have to say is again
thank you so much for taking the time to be with us here today to learn more about what we're
working towards uh and also be a part of the conversation this is an incredible opportunity
here for the state of Ohio and you know your feedback your considerations is all uh only going
to help w
hen it comes to how we approach this uh and form the most impactful program that we can
for our citizens here in Ohio so again I really appreciate you taking the time and encourage you
to stay engaged um reach out to Brer myself view our website too for updates we'll be following
up with additional information including the presentation um and the recording but I don't
know brook or Bob if you have anything to add as well I think just reiterating oh go ahead
Bob no I'll let you go Brooke an
d I have have a couple one or two comments okay I
think I just wanted to reiterate Jessica's call that um you know communities that
are interested in engaging in some of the proposed um implementation uh Grant
application measures that we've discussed really love to talk to you more understand
your needs um and look for those letters of support to really support um our application and
hopefully bring in that funding to support your community um and uh uh thank you for your
attendance one t
hing I'll mention that actually didn't come up in any of the questions but I want
to make sure that that everyone understands it's certainly a consideration and that is the criteria
pollutant that will be reduced by this program uh usepa recently adopted a more restrictive
particulate matter standard and there will be areas in the state that will not meet that 9.0
pm2.5 standard the new one so that's also a factor and and we're looking forward to using uh some
of these programs to reduce cr
iteria pollutant to help and that's when Brooke was talking
about improving Public Health overall it's also looking at some of the criteria pollutants
uh reductions that we're going to get from these programs and again thank you for attending well I think that is everything that we
had today um but with that uh please feel free to reach out with any questions followup
that you might have and again we thank you for attending today and look forward
to uh continuing the conversation thanks eve
ryone
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