Oct. 30 - SACE and Partners Earn DOE Grant to Engage Underserved Black Georgia Communities in Creating Equitable Clean Energy Transportation Initiatives

October 30, 2023 - The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has announced a forthcoming grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to engage, understand, and plan for the equitable electric mobility needs and priorities of underserved Black communities in Georgia.

In partnership with EVNoire (EVN) and Clean Cities Georgia (CC-GA), SACE will utilize the DOE funding to ensure that underserved Black communities within three Georgia cities – Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah – are actively engaged and empowered to create and deploy equitable, accessible, electric mobility initiatives.

This project will gather and center community priorities, strategies, and voices to ensure that electric mobility investments from federal programs such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) deliver what communities need and want. The strategic implementation of these federal funds will be centered on principles of the Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that 40% of the benefits from national clean energy and climate investments reach disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by environmental and socioeconomic challenges.

Stan Cross, SACE's Electric Transportation Policy Director, said, "Our work aims to put communities in the driver's seat to ensure this landmark federal funding reaches them and is implemented in ways that address the mobility needs and priorities they have identified. Though the project focuses on engaging and benefiting underserved Black communities in Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah, Georgia, learnings will be shared widely to help realize Justice40's intent throughout the Southeast."

As federal funding begins to flow through BIL and IRA, the Southeastern United States is ripe with opportunities to expand electric mobility, advance EV charging infrastructure, promote EV ownership, attract manufacturing jobs, and electrify fleets. Georgia leads the region across a range of transportation electrification metrics, making the state an important player regionally and nationally.

However, in Georgia and across the Southeast, there is an unmet need to ensure that federal money is invested efficiently and equitably to secure the best outcomes for our region's communities, particularly the underserved.

Together with our partners, EVN and CC-GA, SACE will work over the next three years with stakeholders in Albany, Atlanta, and Savannah to enlist representative partners, including grassroots organizers, to engage deeply with the cities' underserved Black communities. Along with creating community-centric strategic plans and identifying pathways to electric mobility project funding and implementation, the project will also engage education partners including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Technical Community College System of Georgia, to identify job skill gaps and ensure communities have access to the job training needed to participate in the state's booming electric transportation sector.

Together, the partners in this project will work to understand barriers and provide pathways to equitable, accessible transportation electrification and workforce development for underserved communities in the Southeast; and to ensure that investments through BIL, IRA, Justice40, and other federal programs benefit these communities.

This project will meet the need to elevate awareness and ensure that federal money is invested efficiently and equitably to bring about community-driven outcomes that are timely and relevant to the communities engaged. In addition to unlocking community-centered access to federal funding and workforce development, project partners will also leverage learnings from this work to inform utility, state agency, and EV industry investment strategies to meet the needs of underserved communities in Georgia and beyond.