Infrastructure bill includes energy efficiency grants for houses of worship

Buried on Page 1,729 of the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill approved by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday (Aug. 10) in a bipartisan vote is a project titled “Energy efficiency materials pilot program.” It would fund $50 million in grants to nonprofits, including religious congregations, so they can buy new energy efficient heating and cooling systems for their buildings. The program, to be administered by the Department of Energy, would provide grants of up to $200,000 each for nonprofits that want to purchase new HVAC units and generators or fund replacements of windows and doors to make them more energy efficient. The relatively small item in the substantial infrastructure deal has been in the works for years. It was spearheaded almost a decade ago by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, a Jewish public policy arm representing one of the largest Orthodox Jewish group in the U.S., and supported by a coalition including the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals and the YMCA of the USA.

Infrastructure bill includes energy efficiency grants for houses of worship