Environmental Priorities in The Biden Infrastructure Law

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (or, as we call it, The Biden Infrastructure Law) provided $550 billion for climate-resilient infrastructure. This money is funding improvements to roads and bridges and clean energy projects such as mass transit and electric vehicle charging. There are projects rolling out in all fifty states now, detailed in state-by-state guides. You can get a PDF overview of Biden Infrastructure Law projects in California there.

In this blog post we’ll feature some of the environmental priorities that have been funded by the Biden Infrastructure Law here in San Francisco, in California more broadly, and nationwide, with thanks to our friends at Activate America and the EPA’s summary: EPA Celebrates Two Years of Progress Under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

We should note that we are only listing the projects funded by the Biden Infrastructure Law. This list doesn’t even cover work funded by the Inflation Reduction Act or other legislation passed in Biden’s first term. We’ll look at environmental achievements funded by those other laws in future blog posts.

Water Infrastructure

With the weather we’ve recently had in San Francisco, stormwater runoff might be on our minds. (Remember to call 311 for clogged catch basins or other flooding.)

Two projects here in the City would fortify our infrastructure for handling stormwater runoff: the Wawona and Vicente Streets Stormwater and Water Main Replacement on the west side, and the Folsom Area Stormwater Improvement Project in SoMa.
Treasure Island is also getting a new wastewater treatment plant as part of the Island’s redevelopment.

All three projects are being funded by California’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which is one of the state’s mechanisms for turning its share of the $50 billion in Biden Infrastructure Law funding into clean water from your tap. The Biden Infrastructure Law contains the largest single investment in water infrastructure in US history.

Lead Pipes

An EPA survey has estimated that lead is present in more than 9.2 million service lines across the country. So far, $6.5 billion has been allocated to identify and replace contaminated pipes, and the EPA has issued a proposed rule that would require that all such pipes be removed within the next ten years (subject to certain exceptions).

Superfund Clean-up

The Biden Infrastructure Law has funded clean-up work on the Argonaut Mine in Jackson, California, east of Sacramento. This is one of seventy toxic-waste-riddled Superfund sites in twenty-eight states and Puerto Rico where work is already underway, and the EPA is expediting new work on an additional one hundred clean-up projects, idle for years due to insufficient funding.

Bicycle Infrastructure

The Folsom-Howard Streetscape Project, to be built starting next month, is funded by a RAISE grant from 2022, which was in turn funded by the Biden Infrastructure Law. These improvements will make it safer for people to switch from cars to bicycles for travel in this part of SoMa.

Electrifying the SF Bay Ferry

The vessels of the SF Bay Ferry, with routes from the Ferry Building to nearby ports like Oakland, Treasure Island, and Angel Island, are powered by diesel engines.

Motivated both by our ongoing climate crisis and by the California Air Resources Board’s clean-air goals, the SF Bay Ferry is moving to transition away from fossil fuels to zero-emission technologies. For the shorter routes, that will mean electrification.

The agency that runs the ferries, WETA, has drafted a blueprint for the zero-emission vessel transition, and last year, the agency received $16 million in federal funding—which, Representative Pelosi’s office confirmed, came from Biden Infrastructure Law funds—to take the first steps.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

San Francisco has received $15 million to build out more electric vehicle (EV) chargers.

This is our portion of the $7.5 billion authorized for EV charging nationwide. The Administration’s goal is to have 500,000 chargers available to the public by 2030, the Administration’s deadline for having EVs account for 50 percent of new car sales.

Funding High-Speed Rail

The Bay Area will have another option for connecting to our fellow Californians upon the completion of the California High-Speed Rail, which is currently being built by union workers thanks to more than $3 billion in federal funding support. The full line will eventually run from Union Station in Los Angeles up through the Central Valley, with stops in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Merced, and connect with Caltrain for the final leg to San Francisco.

To quote our own Representative Pelosi’s office, “These bullet trains will make travel quicker and easier, bring housing closer, create new jobs and economic opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach, secure cleaner air for our children and help save our planet. High-speed rail is essential for California, important for America and necessary for our planet.” And President Biden is helping make it a reality.

Clean Energy Production and Security

The Department of Energy will fund a project to deliver clean solar power from the Westlands Solar Park in the Central Valley to customers elsewhere in California, and the state’s Community Energy Resilience Investment Program will distribute $170 million in Biden Infrastructure Law funding to fortify the electrical grid throughout California.

California will benefit from the Biden Infrastructure Law’s $62 billion to expand and upgrade the US electric grid and provide clean energy—the largest single investment in electric transmission and distribution infrastructure in the history of the United States.

The Department of Energy has also announced $7 billion to launch seven regional clean hydrogen hubs to replace fossil fuels with clean hydrogen for energy-intensive sectors like industrial manufacturing and heavy-duty shipping.

In November of last year the Administration announced $7.3 billion in funding to enhance grid flexibility and resilience against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change and to ensure clean, efficient energy transmission and the creation of good-paying jobs.

Resilience

The Biden Infrastructure Law also provided over $50 billion to protect US infrastructure and local communities from physical, climate, and cybersecurity-related threats. To date, the Administration has funded over 2,300 projects to do so, including responses to wildfires and drought and efforts to protect roads and bridges from climate events.