Title
Approving EPA grant applications to decarbonize downtown.
Body
WHEREAS, the Saint Paul Climate Action and Resilience Plan set a goal of reducing community-wide greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 and down to zero by 2050, and emphasizes the need to ensure that vulnerable and disadvantaged communities benefit from the City’s work to reduce climate pollution; and
WHEREAS as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created the Climate Pollution Reduction program, a one-time grant program that aims to invest in projects that can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring that disadvantaged and environmental justice communities’ benefit from those reductions; and
WHEREAS in order to be eligible for an implementation grant under the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, the City of Saint Paul’s proposed projects must be included in either the State of Minnesota’s or the Metropolitan Council’s Priority Climate Action Plans; and
WHEREAS both the State of Minnesota and the Metropolitan Council Priority Climate Action Plans identify activities that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, and lower-carbon design, materials, and fuels; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from commercial and public buildings by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, and lower-carbon design, materials, and fuels; and
WHEREAS, District Energy Saint Paul, the country’s largest hot water district energy system, serves a total of 33 million square feet of buildings in and around downtown Saint Paul, including Regions and United hospitals, residences, offices, industry, the Capitol complex, Mt. Airy Homes, Saint Paul College with heating and hot water; and
WHEREAS, the City is partnering with District Energy Saint Paul and the Metropolitan Council to design a project that would utilize waste heat from the effluent at the Met Council’s wastewater treatment facility at Pig’s Eye to displace the use of natural gas as a source of thermal energy for District Energy Saint Paul, effectively decarbonizing heating and hot water for most of downtown Saint Paul and environs; and
WHEREAS, the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program has no local match requirement for implementation grants; and now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, the Saint Paul City Council expressly provides its support for the City of Saint Paul to submit grant applications to the US EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program for up to $150 million including contingency for the District Energy Saint Paul/Met Council Wastewater waste heat project; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, that should the City or its coalition partners be awarded grant funds for this application, the Saint Paul City Council authorizes the appropriate City departments to enter into one or more grant agreement(s) with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.