Denver — U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) alongside 18 of their Congressional colleagues called on U.S. Senate and House Appropriations Committee leaders to appropriate at least $8 million in Fiscal Year 2025 to support transitioning energy communities across the country through the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization.
“Congress has an obligation to invest in communities that have powered America for generations,” wrote Bennet, Stansbury and the lawmakers. “With an appropriation of $8 million in FY 2025, the IWG could expand its work to support economic development and diversification in communities across the nation.”
Many energy communities are confronting the challenges from closures of coal-fired power plants and coal mines and the associated lost local tax revenue for core public services. As energy communities work to diversify their local economies, many also face deteriorating infrastructure, declining manufacturing jobs, insufficient access to health care, and lasting economic challenges from the COVID pandemic. The Department of Energy’s IWG is a partnership of 11 federal agencies and White House offices working to increase economic opportunity, support workers, and create jobs in communities affected by the national transition to a clean energy economy.
“Supporting these communities must be central to America’s energy transition, and we cannot wait until they face economic disaster to act. IWG can help these communities avoid further hardship and seize the opportunities of America’s growing clean energy economy,” conclude the lawmakers.
In addition to Bennet and Stansbury, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), and Katie Porter (D-Calif.) also signed the letter.
Bennet led similar letters to the Administration requesting funding for the IWG in the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, and to appropriators urging funding for Fiscal Year 2024.
The text of the letter is available HERE and below.
Dear Chair Murray, Chair Fleischmann, Ranking Member Kennedy, and Ranking Member Kaptur:
As your committees develop their fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bill, we write to respectfully request at least $8 million – in line with the President’s Budget – to fund activities across federal agencies participating in the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization under the Department of Energy (DOE).
The IWG is an initiative led by DOE, and implemented through a partnership of 11 federal agencies and Executive Office of the President offices working to spur economic revitalization, support workers, and create new jobs in communities affected by the energy transition. Thus far, the IWG has focused particularly on regions grappling with the challenges from the closure of coal-fired power plants and coal mines and the lost local revenue for core public services. Many of these communities also face deteriorating infrastructure, declining manufacturing jobs, insufficient access to health care, and lingering economic challenges from the COVID pandemic.
Congress has an obligation to invest in communities that have powered America for generations. We appreciate the funding you provided in FY 2024, which allows the IWG to advance energy infrastructure projects, workforce development and training strategies, and environmental clean-up projects. With an appropriation of $8 million in FY 2025, the IWG could expand its work to support economic development and diversification in communities across the nation. That includes expanding its Rapid Response Team (RRT) capacity, which helps match federal resources with the unique needs of specific regions that have recently experienced or are anticipating fossil fuel facility closures. RRTs currently exist in six regions: Wyoming, the Four Corners, the Illinois Basin, Eastern Kentucky, Appalachian Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Additional funding is needed to build on this work and expand into new regions of the country.
Supporting these communities must be central to America’s energy transition, and we cannot wait until they face economic disaster to act. IWG can help these communities avoid further hardship and seize the opportunities of America’s growing clean energy economy.
We urge you to provide the IWG with at least $8 million in FY 2025 funding to continue its work supporting our nation’s energy communities.