Fifteen states will share $575 million in federal grants to help protect shoreline communities against the worsening impacts of climate change, Biden administration officials announced early Friday.
The competitive grants, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and awarded by NOAA under its climate-ready coasts initiative, will be spread across areas on all three U.S. saltwater coasts and in the Great Lakes.
In total, 19 projects will move forward under the NOAA program, with individual grants ranging from $1.45 million to nearly $75 million. The lion’s share of the funds will go to projects in seven states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Washington and New Jersey, where high tides and storms are transforming — and sometimes destroying — coastal ecosystems and gnawing away at critical infrastructure.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a former governor of Rhode Island, said waterfront communities are increasingly burdened by climate impacts.
