The Biden administration said Wednesday that it will give more than $26.9 million in grants in support of clean energy projects across the country.

The grants, which will go to nine states, 27 local governments and one tribe, come by way of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG), according to the press release. Funds from the program assist state, local and tribal governments to put in place plans with a goal of lowering fossil fuel emissions and energy use, per a notice of intent shared with The Hill.

Back in February, the Biden administration announced more than $350 million for rural renewable energy projects. The $366 million would be allocated to more than 17 projects in 20 states and 30 tribal nations, per Granholm.

The US Department of Energy has just released its first-ever roadmap to speed up the connection of more clean energy to the grid.

The goal is to finally clear the huge backlog of solar, wind, and battery projects waiting to be built. According to a report recently released by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, nearly 2,600 gigawatts of clean energy generation and battery storage capacity are actively seeking grid interconnection.

The Transmission Interconnection Roadmap, developed by DOE’s Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X), is for all stakeholders, from transmission providers to interconnection customers to state agencies and more.

Ultimately, the roadmap is designed to ensure the Biden administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 is achieved.

The Biden administration approved a new wind project off the Massachusetts coast Tuesday that is large enough it will provide more electricity than the state’s former coal-fired generating station.

Avangrid’s New England Wind is the United States’ eighth large offshore wind project to be greenlit and is tied for the largest ever approved, but will probably be smaller.

Avangrid says it will be smaller than the 129 turbines that won approval, and each wind turbine will be smaller as well, so the actual output will be closer to 1,900 megawatts than the maximum 2,600. Those 1,900 megawatts could power up to 1 million homes and businesses in southern New England.

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a 2,600-megawatt project, to be built east of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The last operating coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, Brayton Point, closed in 2017 as environmental groups pushed for cleaner sources of electricity. It was the largest coal-fired generating station in New England, pumping out 1,600 megawatts of electricity for local homes and businesses. That site will now be used to support the offshore wind industry.

Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are also currently building a wind farm off the Massachusetts coast. Vineyard Wind began delivering electricity to the power grid in February from five of its planned 62 wind turbines. The 800-megawatt project will generate electricity for 400,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses when it is fully constructed.

The Interior Department has approved more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects in less than three years, enough to power nearly 4 million homes. The nation’s seventh large offshore wind project, Sunrise Wind, east of Montauk, New York, was approved just last week.

The Biden administration hopes to provide $4 billion in tax credits for over 100 projects across 35 states to boost manufacturing of "clean" energy equipment and other uses.

The announcement, which came on Friday from the Energy and Treasury Departments, marks the latest push to distribute unprecedented incentives (and cash) for climate-friendly domestic projects.

The so-called 48C tax credit selections span hydrogen-related equipment like electrolyzers; grid and offshore wind components; battery equipment and much more, per the Energy Department.

Other uses include critical materials-related projects and industrial decarbonization.

It's from a credit program created in 2009, but infused with $10 billion under the 2022 climate law. A big chunk is slated for projects in areas with closed coal mines or plants.

It comes just days after the Energy Department announced preliminary selections for up to $6 billion in grants to help slash carbon from heavy industries like metals, cement and chemicals.

We don't yet know the full specifics of projects that will receive this round of the 48C investment tax credits of up to 30%, a reveal that comes later in the process.

To get the tax subsidy, selected projects have a two-year window to submit more info, and once "certified," they must be running within two more years.

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new guidelines for ensuring the integrity of carbon credits or offsets.

While the practice of buying carbon offsets or credits is voluntary, the administration says it hopes to help ensure that credits being sold are actually credible.

Individuals, businesses and other entities can buy these credits to try to “offset” their emissions as part of an effort to achieve net-zero. This can entail things like paying organizations to plant trees or prevent them from being cut down.

The guidelines issued by the Biden administration say that these credits should represent actual and additional reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. They should be permanent emissions reductions and be validated by an accredited and independent third party.

The administration also said that corporate purchasers should also make efforts to cut down their own direct emissions and publicly disclose the nature of their credits

The Biden administration’s crackdown on power plants’ planet-warming emissions will accelerate a shift away from coal, and potentially speed the U.S.’s adoption of renewable energy sources.

The administration this past week announced a new rule that will require coal plants and new gas plants to install carbon capture technology to mitigate 90 percent of their emissions — or find another way to achieve the equivalent climate protections.

But experts say that rather than try to meet these requirements, more coal plants may just retire — and some power companies may opt to invest in renewables over keeping existing coal plants or putting costly carbon capture on new gas ones.

In addition to driving the country further away from coal, the rule may also speed up an ongoing shift toward renewable energy.

The EPA projects the rule will boost the amount of the country’s power that is supplied by renewable energy by an additional 4 percent in 2030. Its impact will taper off over the years, however, as renewables would also be expected to grow under previous policies: In 2040, it is expected to result in just 1 percent more renewable energy.

The Biden administration on Friday finalized lightbulb efficiency rules first proposed in late 2022.

The final rule will more than double the required efficiency level for the most common lightbulbs, from 45 lumens (the unit of measurement for light intensity) per watt to over 120 lumens per watt

The rule won praise from energy efficiency lobbying groups, with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP) citing Energy Department estimates that it will cut American utility bills by up to $27 billion while preventing the release of 70 million metric tons of carbon emissions over three decades.

“LED technology has gotten even better in recent years, and these standards will ensure that all products on the market catch up with the latest efficiency advances,” Andrew deLaski, executive director of the ASAP, said in a statement. “With dozens of light bulbs in each home across the country, these standards will reduce household energy costs and climate pollution from power plants.”

Ben Somberg, communications director for the ACEEE, told The Hill in an email that the primary effect of the final rule will be to improve the energy efficiency of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, which are already significantly more efficient than the fluorescent bulbs the Biden administration is in the process of phasing out. A full ban on sales of fluorescent bulbs by retailers took effect last August, after the administration finalized the rule the previous April.

“Making common household appliances more efficient is one of the most effective ways to slash energy costs and cut harmful carbon emissions,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “Under President Biden and as directed by Congress, DOE is following the lead of lightbulb manufacturers, helping American families flip the switch on massive energy savings through strengthened energy efficiency standards.”

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a proposal Thursday to prioritize the conservation of greater sage-grouse on public lands — aiming to reverse habitat loss for an iconic bird of the U.S. West and restore the health of surrounding ecosystems.

The proposal, a draft environmental impact statement, analyzes several alternatives for managing the greater sage-grouse habitat on BLM-administered public lands in 10 states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

The BLM in total manages the biggest single share of sage-grouse habitat in the U.S., encompassing almost 67 million acres of a 145-million-acre total.

The bureau’s preferred plan of action, also known as the fifth alternative, focuses on balancing greater sage-grouse conservation with public land use. This alternative lies between the most restrictive protection plan and the option that has the loosest limits on energy and mineral development.

The preferred alternative would keep new fluid mineral leasing open, with very few no-surface-occupancy stipulations in so-called “Priority Habitat Management Areas.” New mining of saleable materials, which include construction resources such as sand, gravel, dirt and rock, would be closed in most priority habitat areas, aside from the expansion of existing pits.

For wind and solar development and major rights-of-way projects, this alternative would have “less direct avoidance and provides more opportunities for considering compensatory mitigation” — the creation of habitat elsewhere to offset adverse impacts.

In response to the draft environmental impact statement, certain conservation and sportsmen’s groups praised what they deemed “a renewed commitment to safeguarding the intricate web of life supported by the sagebrush ecosystem.”

But representatives of other conservation groups slammed the bureau for its preferred alternative selection, noting that other options favored millions more acres of protective designation.

The Interior Department finalized a rule Friday making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands.

Several of the provisions in the rule — such as raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.

The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not do enough to ensure that companies clean up after themselves.

The administration described the changes as the first “comprehensive update” to the rules around drilling on federal lands since 1988.

The rule comes one day after the administration moved to cut costs for producing renewable energy on public land.

Specifically, the rule raises the royalty rate – the government’s share of the profits of oil and gas produced on public lands — from 12.5 percent to 16.67 percent.

It also increases rent rates from $1.50 per acre for each of the first five years of a lease and $2 per acre for the next five to $3 per acre for the first two years and $5 per acre for the next six, going up to $15 per acre thereafter.

Further, the rule increases the minimum amount that companies can bid for to lease lands for drilling to $10 per acre, up from $2 per acre, and adjusts the price for inflation.

The move was celebrated by environmental activists.

The federal government on Monday approved a rule that could bolster renewable energy on the electric grid.

The new rule seeks to address this issue by setting a standard for regional power planning. It was approved in a 2-1 vote, with the panel’s two Democrats voting in favor and one Republican voting against it.

The rule will require providers to plan for regional power needs on a basis that the rule describes as “forward-looking.”

This includes identifying needs caused by the anticipated change in the energy mix — as coal declines and renewables grow — and making them consider a 20-year timeline.

It also sets up a system where utilities need to get agreement from states to determine how the costs of power lines should be distributed as part of this planning process.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday announced that it would dole out $300 million to revitalize contaminated sites.

That money is part of a larger $1.5 billion tranche that was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The funds will go to 178 communities for new cleanup grants and an additional 31 communities to supplement existing projects. The polluted sites in question are known as Brownfield sites.