Companies Must Make Diversity Pledge To Qualify For $6 Billion Biden Initiative

The Biden administration’s newly-launched $6.3 billion decarbonization fund will require companies submit a “Community Benefits Plan” in order to be considered, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday.

Applications to the fund, known as the Industrial Demonstrations Program, will have “20 percent of the technical merit review” be based on whether these plans sufficiently advanced four administration goals: investment in America’s workforce; engaging communities and labor; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility; and implementing Justice 40,” the DOE announced. Justice40 is a White House initiative that targets 40% of certain federal spending projects benefit disadvantaged communities that are “overburdened by pollution.”

The program will focus on “decarbonization technologies” in the industrial sector, with a particular focus on iron, steel, aluminum, concrete and cement and other chemicals, The White House announced in a fact sheet. The program is funded primarily by the Biden administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, a far-reaching climate bill that offers hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for green technology.