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$20 million Environmental Protection Agency grant will boost Fifth Ward energy resilience

News Feed
Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Houston Health DepartmentHouston Health Department Administration buildingThe Houston Health Department was awarded a $20 million grant by the Environmental Protection Agency to boost energy resilience in the Greater Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. The multi-million dollar grant will, in part, establish an energy rebate program for residents affected by a polluted Union Pacific rail yard in the Fifth Ward, according to a Tuesday morning press release from the health department. The Fifth Ward rail yard— where wooden railroad ties were historically treated with creosote, a chemical mixture and likely human carcinogen— has been a source of contention for decades, and residents have long blamed Union Pacific. Under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, Union Pacific earlier this year began soil testing near the contamination site. RELATED: Union Pacific begins soil testing for cancer-causing chemicals in Fifth Ward The $20 million contribution is a culmination of two previous Environmental Protection Agency grants from the agency’s Vulnerable to Vibrant series, the Houston Health Department announced Tuesday. “Through this grant, we will also aim to enhance a state-of-the-art flood alert system that provides advance warning,” Loren Hopkins, the health department’s chief environmental science officer said in a statement. “We will promote and provide education regarding an air permit application warning system, plant fruit trees for flood, heat and pollution mitigation, develop a hyper-local neighborhood resilience plan and establish a Houston Environmental Justice Advisory Committee.” About $500,000 of the grant initiative will go towards offering paid internships to residents and establishing a solar hub for the community during weather emergencies. Residents who complete paid internships will be hired in full time positions to work on the solar installations, according to the health department.

The Houston Health Department was awarded a $20 million grant by the Environmental Protection Agency to boost energy resilience in the Greater Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. 

Houston Health Department Administration building

Houston Health Department

Houston Health Department Administration building

The Houston Health Department was awarded a $20 million grant by the Environmental Protection Agency to boost energy resilience in the Greater Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens.

The multi-million dollar grant will, in part, establish an energy rebate program for residents affected by a polluted Union Pacific rail yard in the Fifth Ward, according to a Tuesday morning press release from the health department.

The Fifth Ward rail yard— where wooden railroad ties were historically treated with creosote, a chemical mixture and likely human carcinogen— has been a source of contention for decades, and residents have long blamed Union Pacific.

Under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, Union Pacific earlier this year began soil testing near the contamination site.

RELATED: Union Pacific begins soil testing for cancer-causing chemicals in Fifth Ward

The $20 million contribution is a culmination of two previous Environmental Protection Agency grants from the agency’s Vulnerable to Vibrant series, the Houston Health Department announced Tuesday.

“Through this grant, we will also aim to enhance a state-of-the-art flood alert system that provides advance warning,” Loren Hopkins, the health department’s chief environmental science officer said in a statement.

“We will promote and provide education regarding an air permit application warning system, plant fruit trees for flood, heat and pollution mitigation, develop a hyper-local neighborhood resilience plan and establish a Houston Environmental Justice Advisory Committee.”

About $500,000 of the grant initiative will go towards offering paid internships to residents and establishing a solar hub for the community during weather emergencies.

Residents who complete paid internships will be hired in full time positions to work on the solar installations, according to the health department.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

Fears of Massive Battery Fires Spark Local Opposition to Energy Storage Projects

Lithium-ion batteries are increasingly being used to store power for electrical grids, but some localities are concerned about fire risks

More and more, big arrays of lithium-ion batteries are being hooked up to electrical grids around the U.S. to store power that can be discharged in times of high demand.But as more energy storage is added, residents in some places are pushing back due to fears that the systems will go up in flames, as a massive facility in California did earlier this year.Proponents maintain that state-of-the-art battery energy storage systems are safe, but more localities are enacting moratoriums.“We’re not guinea pigs for anybody ... we are not going to experiment, we’re not going to take risk,” said Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which passed a moratorium in July after a storage system was proposed near the village line.At least a few dozen localities around the United States have moved to temporarily block development of big battery systems in recent years.Long Island, where the power grid could get a boost in the next few years as offshore wind farms come online, has been a hotbed of activism, even drawing attention recently from the Trump administration. Opponents there got a boost in August when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited New York to complain that the state was rushing approvals of sites in order to meet “delusional” green power goals — a claim state officials deny.Battery energy storage systems that suck up cheap power during periods of low demand, then discharge it at a profit during periods of high demand, are considered critical with the rise of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.Known by the acronym BESS, the systems can make grids more reliable and have been credited with reducing blackouts. A large battery system might consist of rows of shipping containers in a fenced lot, with the containers holding hundreds of thousands of cells.China and the United States lead the world in rapidly adding battery storage energy systems. However, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Chile, Canada and the U.K. have commissioned or started construction on large projects since 2024, too, according to research from BloombergNEF.In the U.S., California and Texas have been leaders in battery storage. But other states are moving quickly, often with privately developed systems. While the Trump administration has been unsupportive or even hostile to renewable energy, key tax credits for energy storage projects were maintained in the recently approved federal budget for qualified projects that begin construction in the next eight years.Developers added 4,908 megawatts of battery storage capacity in the second quarter of 2025, with Arizona, California and Texas accounting for about three-quarters of that new capacity, according to a report from American Clean Power Association, an industry group. That’s enough to power nearly 1.7 million households.New York has an ambitious goal to add 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, half of it large-scale systems.Opposition to the storage systems usually focuses on the possibility of thermal runaway, a chain reaction of uncontrolled heating that can lead to fire or an explosion. Opponents point to past fires and ask: What if that happens in my neighborhood?A battery storage system in Moss Landing, California caught fire in January, sending plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere and forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 people..Experts in the field say battery systems have become safer over the years. Ofodike Ezekoye, a combustion expert and professor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, notes that failures are relatively infrequent, but also that no engineered system is 100% foolproof.“This is a relatively immature technology that is maturing quickly, so I think that there are a lot of really thoughtful researchers and other stakeholders who are trying to improve the overall safety of these systems,” Ezekoye said.Battery storage proponents say a facility like Moss Landing, where batteries were stored indoors, would not be allowed in New York, which has adopted fire codes that require modular enclosure design with required minimum spacing to keep fires from spreading.People who live near proposed sites are not always assured.In Washington state, the city of Maple Valley approved a six-month moratorium in July as a way “to protect us until we know more,” said city manager Laura Philpot.Voters in Halstead, Kansas, which has a moratorium, will be asked this Election Day whether they want to prohibit larger battery storage systems inside the city limits, according to Mayor Dennis Travis. He hopes the city can one day host a safely designed storage system, and said local opponents wrongly fixate on the California fire.The number of localities passing moratoriums began rising in 2023 and 2024, mirroring trends in battery storage deployment, with a notable cluster in New York, according to a presentation last year by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.Winnie Sokolowski is among area residents against a proposed 250-megawatt lithium-ion storage system in the Town of Ulster, New York, contending it is too close to schools and homes.“They’re banking on nothing happening, but I don’t think you can place it where they’re proposing and assume nothing’s going to happen,” Sokolowski said. “It’s just too risky if it does.”The developer, Terra-Gen, said the design will keep a fire from spreading and that the system “poses no credible, scientific-based threat to neighbors, the public or the environment.”New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President Doreen Harris said she's confident the state has the right safety rules in place, and that scaling up the use of battery storage systems will “strengthen and modernize our grid.”She noted there also were local concerns in the early stages of siting solar farms, which have since proven their benefits.Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Energy
Activism
Technology

Trump administration moves to terminate $400M in energy grants in Oregon

The cancellations will impact major transmission upgrades, energy-efficiency projects, workforce development and clean technology manufacturing across the state.

The U.S. Department of Energy is canceling more than $400 million in energy grants in Oregon, a move that will slow or halt major transmission upgrades, energy-efficiency projects, workforce development and clean technology manufacturing across the state. The list of terminated grants, published Thursday by Appropriations Committee Democrats – a group of legislators who are members of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations – includes 18 grants in Oregon totaling about $402 million. By far the largest grant on the list is $250 million for Warm Springs Power & Water Enterprises, a tribally owned utility operated by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, that was slated to upgrade a 1960s-era transmission line on the Warm Springs Reservation in central Oregon. The line connects energy resources east of the Cascades to customers in the Willamette Valley. The Oregon cancellations are among $7.6 billion in energy grants that the Energy Department announced for cancellation nationwide on Wednesday night, targeting mostly Democratic states. The federal agency said the projects “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.” Critics have countered that the Trump administration is using the federal government shutdown to punish political opponents. The federal agency has not yet released an official list of affected projects nor has it notified grant recipients. The Oregon Department of Energy said it’s aware of the cancellations but could not confirm the details of individual projects or amounts. “Canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in energy projects in Oregon is a significant setback for reaching an affordable, reliable clean energy future,” said agency Director Janine Benner. “Between these actions, various supply chain issues, tariffs on components and federal agencies halting permitting even for projects not on federal lands, the federal government is making choices that may threaten reliability and will certainly increase costs for ratepayers.”According to the Appropriations Committee Democrats list, awards terminated in Oregon include several utility projects meant to strengthen the state’s aging transmission infrastructure. One of them is $50 million for Portland General Electric to deploy devices such as smart meters near homes and businesses to strengthen the grid against frequent severe weather events and deliver electricity more efficiently, leading to savings for customers, the utility confirmed.PGE’s $4.3 million grant for retrofitting buildings to lower energy costs and strengthen grid resilience, which was also to feature bill credits, cash back and free upgrades for customers, is also being terminated, as is its $4.5 million grant to upgrade parts of the Wheatridge wind-solar-battery project to maintain reliability and affordability.PGE said it’s aware of the termination announcement but has not been contacted by the federal agency. “The federal grants that PGE and partners have been awarded support critical investments in the reliability of Oregon and the region’s electrical system and help keep electricity prices as low as possible for customers,” senior vice president for strategy and advanced energy delivery Larry Bekkedahl said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Other cancellations target clean hydrogen development in Oregon and across the region. They include $25 million to Portland-based Daimler Truck North America to develop, build and test a hydrogen fuel cell truck that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. Also axed: $29.8 million to Ballard US, a Bend-based hydrogen fuel cell maker to establish a hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing facility. Neither Daimler nor Ballard could be immediately reached for comment. Another canceled project on the list is a $3.5 million grant for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance to pay for training rural Oregonians – including college students, HVAC technicians and home inspectors – to meet Oregon’s energy codes. The city of Portland also will see a $1.8 million grant disappear. The money was set to pay for a pole-mounted electric vehicle charging network in public rights-of-way to provide access to affordable charging for people who live in apartment complexes or who cannot afford to install a home EV charger. Additional Oregon-based grant recipients on the termination list include: Onboard Dynamics LLC, PacifiCorp, the Crater Lake Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Trust Fund, New Buildings Institute, Earth Advantage, Oregon State University and Forth Mobility Fund. Also on the termination list: a $1 billion grant for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association to launch the region’s hydrogen hub, meant to jumpstart production and use of “green” hydrogen, which proponents said would create thousands of jobs and reduce emissions. Environmental groups decried the cancellations which come as the state is struggling to meet its aggressive climate mandates, including eliminating fossil energy by 2040. “Oregon needs more clean energy, not less, and taking money away from critical clean energy projects at a time of rising energy demand is bad for everyone,” said Nora Apter, Oregon Director of Climate Solutions, a Northwest-based nonprofit focused on clean energy. “It hurts our state’s ability to modernize our outdated electric grid and meet today’s rising energy demands with affordable clean energy, and Oregon families and businesses will be stuck with paying the tab.”Gov. Tina Kotek called the grant terminations part of the president’s history of prioritizing political posturing. “Once again, the Trump administration has chosen to abandon its commitment to clean energy and the American workers who depend on these promised projects, demonstrating the same shameful pattern of short-term thinking that is failing Oregon and states across the nation,” Kotek said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Energy said award recipients have 30 days to appeal a termination decision. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Energy
Technology
Climate

Duke Energy backs off renewables after North Carolina cuts climate goal

When North Carolina’s GOP-led legislature nixed a key decarbonization deadline for Duke Energy in July, critics feared it would upend the state’s transition to clean energy. Now, a proposal Duke just submitted to regulators shows they were right to worry as the utility, North Carolina’s largest, seeks to walk back…

Duke’s proposed blueprint largely aligns with how experts predicted the company would behave without the 2030 deadline to curb greenhouse gas emissions. ​“This is just about what we expected,” said Will Scott, Southeast climate and clean energy director with the Environmental Defense Fund. The plan also reflects the federal government’s increasing hostility to renewable energy — and its unrelenting push to accelerate fossil-fuel use. At the same time, Trump has tried to prop up coal — the nation’s most expensive and polluting source of power — including via a Monday announcement of $625 million for the industry. As Duke notes in its plan, the administration has also relaxed other rules around carbon emissions and toxic ash from coal plants, although a future president could reverse course. Duke is responding accordingly. The company now wants to keep 4.1 gigawatts of its coal fleet running longer than it previously planned, instead of investing in proven clean-energy technology, said Mikaela Curry, manager for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. ​“It’s just so frustrating,” she said. “It’s clear that national political sentiment is making its way into this plan,” said Brooks. ​“I don’t know what else accounts for prolonging coal, because the economics are certainly not on its side.” Before the rollback of the state climate law, cuts to federal incentives for renewables, and Trump’s particularly vicious attacks on wind energy, Duke had planned to add 13.2 gigawatts of solar and 4.5 gigawatts of onshore and offshore wind by 2035, according to the state’s nonpartisan customer advocate, Public Staff. Now, the utility envisions 9.2 gigawatts of solar — and no wind at all until at least 2040. “That’s clearly a response to political winds and not our resource winds,” Brooks said. ​“In a rational world, we’re going to have wind development in North Carolina.” The Oct. 1 blueprint from Duke is a first draft. Now, clean-energy advocates begin the arduous work of combing through the utility’s modeling assumptions and dozens of portfolios. They and other stakeholders have six months to offer written responses. The state’s Utilities Commission has until the end of next year to approve or amend Duke’s plan. With increased reliance on gas and coal sure to hit customers’ pocketbooks, critics say they’ll put rate impacts front and center. ​“We’re very sensitive to any portfolio that leaves ratepayers exposed to unnecessary fuel volatility and supply risks,” said Brooks.

Energy
Climate
Technology

Constellation Energy to Spend $340M to Improve Water Quality at Maryland's Conowingo Dam

Constellation Energy has agreed to spend more than $340 million to improve water quality from the Conowingo Dam that flows into the Susquehanna River and eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Constellation Energy has agreed to spend more than $340 million to improve water quality at Maryland’s Conowingo Dam, which flows into the Susquehanna River and eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, officials announced Thursday. The agreement clears the way for the re-licensing and continued operation of the dam’s hydroelectric facility on the Susquehanna, which is the largest source of renewable energy in Maryland. “This agreement will lead to real improvements in water quality in the biggest tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, while securing the future of one of our state’s largest clean energy producers," Gov. Wes Moore said. The agreement marks an end to wrangling over who is responsible for addressing pollution in sediment that gets stuck in the dam and ends up being released downstream and into the bay.The Maryland Department of the Environment issued an initial certification for the Conowingo Dam in 2018, but legal challenges led to a 2019 waiver of that certification and a settlement that required Constellation Energy to invest in improvements valued at $230 million. The terms were dependent on the facility’s receipt of a 50-year federal license, which it got but that was challenged by environmental groups. An appeals court vacated that license in 2022 after siding with the environmental groups who argued that Constellation’s license should require the company to mitigate the dam's water quality impacts. The deal announced Thursday was negotiated in partnership with Waterkeepers Chesapeake and Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association to meet enforceable water quality standards, the governor’s office said.The terms include about $88 million for pollution reduction and resiliency initiatives, including shoreline restoration, forest buffers, fish passage projects and planting underwater grasses that produce oxygen, stabilize sediments and provide habitat for countless species. Another $78 million will be spent on trash and debris removal to add to efforts that already clear an average of about 600 tons of debris each year.It also includes funding to improve passages for fish and eels, a new freshwater mussel hatchery, invasive species management, and a study on the scientific and economic viability of dredging the dam to remove trapped sediment.A Revised Water Quality Certification will be filed with the federal government for the dam’s license to be renewed, the governor's office said. “Today’s announcement marks 16 years of tremendous effort and perseverance by our organization to assure Conowingo Dam is relicensed with proper conditions that protect the health of the Lower Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay,” said Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association Executive Director Ted Evgeniadis. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Energy
Water
Government

Concrete “battery” developed at MIT now packs 10 times the power

Improved carbon-cement supercapacitors could turn the concrete around us into massive energy storage systems.

Concrete already builds our world, and now it’s one step closer to powering it, too. Made by combining cement, water, ultra-fine carbon black (with nanoscale particles), and electrolytes, electron-conducting carbon concrete (ec3, pronounced “e-c-cubed”) creates a conductive “nanonetwork” inside concrete that could enable everyday structures like walls, sidewalks, and bridges to store and release electrical energy. In other words, the concrete around us could one day double as giant “batteries.”As MIT researchers report in a new PNAS paper, optimized electrolytes and manufacturing processes have increased the energy storage capacity of the latest ec3 supercapacitors by an order of magnitude. In 2023, storing enough energy to meet the daily needs of the average home would have required about 45 cubic meters of ec3, roughly the amount of concrete used in a typical basement. Now, with the improved electrolyte, that same task can be achieved with about 5 cubic meters, the volume of a typical basement wall.“A key to the sustainability of concrete is the development of ‘multifunctional concrete,’ which integrates functionalities like this energy storage, self-healing, and carbon sequestration. Concrete is already the world’s most-used construction material, so why not take advantage of that scale to create other benefits?” asks Admir Masic, lead author of the new study, MIT Electron-Conducting Carbon-Cement-Based Materials Hub (EC³ Hub) co-director, and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) at MIT.The improved energy density was made possible by a deeper understanding of how the nanocarbon black network inside ec3 functions and interacts with electrolytes. Using focused ion beams for the sequential removal of thin layers of the ec3 material, followed by high-resolution imaging of each slice with a scanning electron microscope (a technique called FIB-SEM tomography), the team across the EC³ Hub and MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub was able to reconstruct the conductive nanonetwork at the highest resolution yet. This approach allowed the team to discover that the network is essentially a fractal-like “web” that surrounds ec3 pores, which is what allows the electrolyte to infiltrate and for current to flow through the system. “Understanding how these materials ‘assemble’ themselves at the nanoscale is key to achieving these new functionalities,” adds Masic.Equipped with their new understanding of the nanonetwork, the team experimented with different electrolytes and their concentrations to see how they impacted energy storage density. As Damian Stefaniuk, first author and EC³ Hub research scientist, highlights, “we found that there is a wide range of electrolytes that could be viable candidates for ec3. This even includes seawater, which could make this a good material for use in coastal and marine applications, perhaps as support structures for offshore wind farms.”At the same time, the team streamlined the way they added electrolytes to the mix. Rather than curing ec3 electrodes and then soaking them in electrolyte, they added the electrolyte directly into the mixing water. Since electrolyte penetration was no longer a limitation, the team could cast thicker electrodes that stored more energy.The team achieved the greatest performance when they switched to organic electrolytes, especially those that combined quaternary ammonium salts — found in everyday products like disinfectants — with acetonitrile, a clear, conductive liquid often used in industry. A cubic meter of this version of ec3 — about the size of a refrigerator — can store over 2 kilowatt-hours of energy. That’s about enough to power an actual refrigerator for a day.While batteries maintain a higher energy density, ec3 can in principle be incorporated directly into a wide range of architectural elements — from slabs and walls to domes and vaults — and last as long as the structure itself.“The Ancient Romans made great advances in concrete construction. Massive structures like the Pantheon stand to this day without reinforcement. If we keep up their spirit of combining material science with architectural vision, we could be at the brink of a new architectural revolution with multifunctional concretes like ec3,” proposes Masic.Taking inspiration from Roman architecture, the team built a miniature ec3 arch to show how structural form and energy storage can work together. Operating at 9 volts, the arch supported its own weight and additional load while powering an LED light.However, something unique happened when the load on the arch increased: the light flickered. This is likely due to the way stress impacts electrical contacts or the distribution of charges. “There may be a kind of self-monitoring capacity here. If we think of an ec3 arch at architectural scale, its output may fluctuate when it’s impacted by a stressor like high winds. We may be able to use this as a signal of when and to what extent a structure is stressed, or monitor its overall health in real time,” envisions Masic.The latest developments in ec³ technology bring it a step closer to real-world scalability. It’s already been used to heat sidewalk slabs in Sapporo, Japan, due to its thermally conductive properties, representing a potential alternative to salting. “With these higher energy densities and demonstrated value across a broader application space, we now have a powerful and flexible tool that can help us address a wide range of persistent energy challenges,” explains Stefaniuk. “One of our biggest motivations was to help enable the renewable energy transition. Solar power, for example, has come a long way in terms of efficiency. However, it can only generate power when there’s enough sunlight. So, the question becomes: How do you meet your energy needs at night, or on cloudy days?”Franz-Josef Ulm, EC³ Hub co-director and CEE professor, continues the thread: “The answer is that you need a way to store and release energy. This has usually meant a battery, which often relies on scarce or harmful materials. We believe that ec3 is a viable substitute, letting our buildings and infrastructure meet our energy storage needs.” The team is working toward applications like parking spaces and roads that could charge electric vehicles, as well as homes that can operate fully off the grid.“What excites us most is that we’ve taken a material as ancient as concrete and shown that it can do something entirely new,” says James Weaver, a co-author on the paper who is an associate professor of design technology and materials science and engineering at Cornell University, as well as a former EC³ Hub researcher. “By combining modern nanoscience with an ancient building block of civilization, we’re opening a door to infrastructure that doesn’t just support our lives, it powers them.”

Energy
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