Elected officials in New York and across the country are urging state and local governments to use new funding available through the Environmental Protection Agency for local environmental projects to benefit their communities, particularly those left out of earlier development programs.

The group Elected Officials to Protect America is pointing toward a $27 billion fund created under the Inflation Reduction Act to award grants for greenhouse gas reduction programs.

Robin Reynolds Wilt, council member for the town of Brighton and an officer in the group's New York Leadership Council, said the projects will be built under a presidential order, in which 40% of the overall investments flow to disadvantaged communities marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

"This particular feature would allocate $27 billion to the EPA to make grants to fund entities that would effectively function as a national green bank," Wilt explained. "$20 billion of the fund is eligible only for nonprofits."

Wilt pointed out the projects will address climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, and affordable and sustainable housing. It will also fund the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution and the development of critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure. The deadline for applications is Oct. 12.

Wilt noted Elected Officials to Protect America is a network of current and former bipartisan elected officials who care about protecting the planet and democracy by working together to transition to a clean energy economy. She added the group educates and trains lawmakers through value-based storytelling and has national and state-based programs.

"These entities provide the funds toward clean-energy building, electrification projects," Wilt outlined. "Any scope of work that would impact greenhouse gas in a positive sense."

She stressed a national green bank would be the lending entity to finance projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in underserved communities. The funds could be used toward clean energy building electrification projects or any scope of work affecting greenhouse gas emissions.

Connecticut lawmakers are reluctant to approve new emission standards that would require 90% cleaner emissions from internal-combustion engines and require carmakers to deliver 100% zero emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, by 2035.

However, clean-air advocates say misinformation about how these standards would impact residents is making it difficult to get them passed.

Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, said most people think it's a ban on gas-powered cars -- when it's not.

"You will be able to drive a gas-powered vehicle for the rest of your life and never have to think about an EV if you don't want to," she said. "What this requires is that any new vehicle, in 2035, and this would all be phased in, all new vehicles must be clean emissions."

Brown believes broadening education about these standards could help turn the tide of public perception. Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection found that 67% of nitrogen-oxide emissions come from transportation.

Brown is convinced the state needs new emissions standards for cars, large trucks and public buses.

Lawmakers are trying to find a compromise to implementing clean-emissions rules, but neighboring states -- such as New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts -- already have them in place.

Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, said advocates may have to take a non-traditional route in Connecticut.

"The Legislature can revisit the rights if we find that they're not possible to be implemented further down the line," said Swan. "It's important for us to be moving forward at this time and continue on this trajectory."

Attendees of this week's COP-28 talks in the United Arab Emirates were hesitant to establish a firm vehicle-emission standard.

COP-28 president Sultan Al-Jeber said there's no science to support phasing out fossil fuels. Many see this as yet another step in the fossil-fuel industry's climate-change misinformation strategy.


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From prolonged droughts to intense rain and snowstorms, the Midwest is not immune to climate change threats.

An emerging resource aims to place more focus on how these threats intersect with an aging population. Academic leaders have established the Aging and Climate Change Clearinghouse. Officials said the goal is to spur and catalog research, intervention work and policy efforts around the U.S. to address climate change vulnerability among those 65 and older.

Karl Pillemer, professor of gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and professor of psychology at Cornell University, directs the project and said if extreme heat events become more common in this part of the country, older residents are unlikely to be equipped to protect themselves.

"For example, a number of older people in areas prone to heat events don't have air conditioning because they've never needed it," Pillemer pointed out.

He suggested state-level climate adaptation plans need more specific details on protecting older residents. Meanwhile, project officials stressed they do not want to portray senior citizens as victims, and getting involved is not just meant for younger generations. The clearinghouse encourages older individuals to raise awareness and serve as volunteers in making their communities climate resilient.

Pillemer added the nation also needs to set aside political ideology in confronting climate topics.

"Even if you have your doubts about what causes climate change, almost everybody can agree that we're experiencing changing weather patterns that are going to affect vulnerable people," Pillemer emphasized.

Beyond preparation gaps, he noted chronic health issues -- made worse by air pollution -- and health care access barriers are ways in which the population will especially feel the climate change burden. The project cites data showing by 2030, more than one in five Americans will be at least 65 years old, underscoring vulnerability concerns.


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A new report shows Maine is exceeding the home-heating goals set forth in its ambitious four-year climate plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The state surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps earlier this summer, and Gov. Janet Mills quickly set a new target of 275,000 by 2027.

Michael Stoddard, Efficiency Maine Trust executive director, said new refrigeration cycle technology is helping both the climate and consumers, who've struggled with volatile prices in home heating oil.

"The advent of highly effective at very cold temperatures and very cost-effective air-sourced heat pumps has been a huge breakthrough for us," Stoddard explained.

Close to 30% of Maine's greenhouse-gas emissions come from heating homes and businesses. The state has set a goal of going carbon neutral by 2045 and is aggressively promoting heat pumps to help reach that target.

The cold and rural state of Maine is the nation's most dependent on home heating oil, with nearly 60% of households reliant on the fuel for warmth, compared with just 4% nationally.

Stoddard said often, households will install a heat pump and continue to use heating oil as a backup source, but added a whole-home heat-pump system can save consumers roughly $1,000 a year.

"So, you can imagine what the impacts of that are, expanded across all the homes that we touch and that we will touch over the next decade," he said.

Stoddard noted many antiquated school buildings in rural Maine could also reap financial rewards by transitioning their heating systems, and said federal and state programs offering financial incentives, especially rebates, are helping drive consumer demand for more efficient heating technologies that also benefit the climate.


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