About Us

Led by cities and counties throughout America, the Energy Block Grants Work! campaign is showcasing the contributions that local governments are making to national energy security and economic recovery. The Energy Block Grants Work! campaign is managed by Climate Communities, a national coalition of cities and counties that is educating federal policymakers about the essential role of local governments in addressing climate change and promoting a strong local-federal partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate Communities championed the inclusion of EECBG and other clean energy funding in economic recovery legislation and has provided important implementation assistance for these resources through our regular Friday calls. Climate Communities has also worked with Congress to create the Climate Showcase Communities program at EPA and built local government support for the new HUD-DOT-EPA Sustainable Communities initiative, which will distribute more than $150 million in grants to regions and local governments to link transportation, housing and land use.

History of Energy Block Grants

Congress authorized the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 as part of a national strategy to decrease American dependence upon foreign oil. The EECBG program leverages the capabilities of local governments by providing localities throughout the country with the resources to develop and implement ambitious energy efficiency and conservation projects.

The EECBG program encourages local innovation by allowing grantees flexibility in formulating individual projects, but ensures effectiveness by requiring grantees to produce outcomes related to the four primary program goals:

• Lower total energy consumption;
• Create and retain jobs;
• Improve energy efficiency; and
• Reduce carbon pollution.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided the first round of funding for the EECBG program – a total of $3.2 billion in formula and competitive grants. In the past year, more than two thousand cities, counties and Indian tribes have received these funds and begun to create substantial benefits for their communities and the nation as a whole. Efficiency improvements are saving local governments, businesses and residents millions of dollars in electricity costs per year; thousands of local green jobs are being created; solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas and other resources are being utilized to generate thousands of megawatt-hours of zero-carbon electricity; and hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon pollution are being avoided.

Communities throughout the nation are utilizing EECBG funding to actively participate in our nation’s economic recovery and its fight to become less dependent on foreign nations for energy production.