• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined Grover Beach officials to present a $543,000 federal grant that the congressman helped secure through his work on the 2024 federal budget, according to an April 12 statement from Carbajal’s office. The funding included in the 2024 federal funding bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in March will allow the Grover Beach Police Department to upgrade its equipment, including new in-car video recorders, public safety cameras, license plate readers, and multi-band radio—bolstering public safety across the community. “I’m proud to be bringing more than $13 million in direct funding for Central Coast projects back to our region—including this important investment in Grover Beach’s public safety. This federal funding will have a profound impact on Grover Beach’s neighborhoods and improve the quality of life for all its residents,” Carbajal said in the statement. “I have been pushing to see this funding approved for the past year, and I’m proud to have helped break this year’s budget logjam last month to deliver this support for the Grover Beach Police Department. Every Central Coast resident deserves to feel safe in their community. This investment will help ensure residents feel safe.”
• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla announced that California will receive $60.6 million to help communities across the state better prepare for and respond to extreme weather events like wildfires, flooding, and extreme heat, according to an April 8 statement from Padilla’s office. This funding came through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Grant Program, which the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established. The PROTECT Grant Program funds projects to make transportation infrastructure more resilient to future weather events and other natural disasters by focusing on resilience planning, making resilience improvements to existing transportation assets and evacuation routes, and addressing at-risk highway infrastructure. In general, eligible projects include highway and transit projects, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and port facilities, including those that help improve evacuations or disaster relief. “As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods, wildfires, and extreme heat, climate-smart transportation infrastructure can be the difference between life and death,” Padilla said in the statement. “Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re delivering major investments in underserved and tribal communities to expedite emergency response and secure reliable emergency evacuation routes while creating more good-paying construction jobs.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration officials joined the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians at the groundbreaking of a large-scale solar and long-duration storage microgrid in Corning—about 100 miles north of Sacramento—according to an April 11 statement from Newsom’s office. The microgrid project received a $32 million grant last year from the California Energy Commission’s Long-Duration Energy Storage Program—part of Newsom’s multi-billion-dollar climate commitment. The program invests in projects that accelerate the implementation of long-duration energy storage solutions to increase the resiliency and reliability of California’s energy infrastructure and meet the state’s energy and climate goals. The project will provide 5 megawatts of solar generation and 15 megawatt hours of long-duration energy storage at the tribe’s Rolling Hills Casino and Resort, enhance energy resiliency by discharging power during emergencies, and lower fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions. “California is showing the world how to fight the climate crisis while creating good jobs and more resilient communities,” Newsom said in the statement. “We’re building more projects like these to secure a clean and reliable energy future that benefits all our communities.”
This article appears in Apr 18-28, 2024.
