building together
Equity eligible contractors alliance
Growing generational wealth as part of the renewable energy transition
legislation
Thank you Leader Marcus Evans for passing the bill and leader Napoleon Harris for filing it!
SB3672 (Harris) and HB5145 (Evans) include equity-eligible contractors in any grant programs for Electric Vehicle chargers.Equity eligible contractors are an Illinois policy success. It is a new category defined in CEJA and certified by the Illinois Power Agency. Equity eligible contractors have their own allocation of funds for solar energy projects and an opportunity for capital to develop their own projects.Illinois is the first state to inject equity into renewable energy development through the creation of equity-eligible contractors.The bills build on this policy success by requiring agencies that disburse grant funds for electric vehicle charging projects to include in their rules some benefit or advantage for equity eligible contractors.The bill grants wide discretion to each state agency to fashion rules that provide the benefit to equity eligible contractors: agencies can add additional points to projects that include equity eligible contractors, set aside some of the grant funds exclusively for equity eligible contractors or create an aspirational goal for all grantees to include equity eligible contractors – or some other method of encouraging the use of equity eligible contractors.
We appreciate Leader Evans passing the EV Charger Grant Act out of the House State Government Committee!
Unfortunately, IDOT just put out a Notice of Funding Opportunities without any EEC provisions -- the Equity provisions are weak and do not award any points for applicants who commit to working with EEC to build generational wealth in communities that need it the most. We hope IDOT and other agencies with current funding opportunities will revise their current scoring system and include EEC instead of vague ideas like incorporate equity principles. The image above is from IDOT's current grant opportunity and you can read it yourself at the link above.This is the reason for the legislation but IDOT and other state agencies do not need the bill to pass before including EEC provisions in grant opportunities. We are calling on the Administration to do the right thing, follow Leader Evans and Leader Harris' lead and provide more points for applicants who commit to working with EECs to install the EV chargers.