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Transition & Resilience: The Bulletin

Issue #5 | April 2021

Welcome to news from the Nuclear Closure Communities Technical Assistance team, helping communities that host a nuclear power plant better prepare and plan for a post-nuclear future. Learn more and get in touch at smartgrowthamerica.org/nuclear

 

The National Economic Transition Platform is crafted to give national policymakers a framework for a comprehensive national transition program that will create vibrant, resilient, and inclusive communities.

The creators of the National Economic Transition Platform sent recommendations to the Biden Administration on community-driven solutions in January 2021. These are meant to support local leaders in places across the country that are ready to be scaled up with federal investment and support in order to spur sustainable and equitable economic growth. Two weeks after receiving these recommendations, the President established the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. The Executive Order noted: 

“Mining and power plant workers drove the industrial revolution and the economic growth that followed, and have been essential to the growth of the United States. As the nation shifts to a clean energy economy, Federal leadership is essential to foster economic revitalization of and investment in these communities...” 

Although a lot of these resources target coal communities, the ultimate goal is to increase funding for transition programs in the short term and a more robust entity to build community capacity in the long term. This is certainly applicable to nuclear host communities. Learn more about how to access this new wave of resources to coordinate the development and deployment of transition policy and capacity.

Reads and Resources

  • Decommissioning creates unfunded mandates precisely at the point when revenues are dropping. We need a national solution that makes the long-term economic health of host communities a policy goal, and a federal agency that assumes responsibility for achieving that goal. Dive into John Mullins’ model for change here.

  • A fundamental requirement for economic resilience is creating an entrepreneurial environment that attracts, stimulates, supports, and launches quality businesses. It takes time, talent, money and an appetite for risk that is rare in public programs. It requires local expertise to coordinate the many components that work together to create rural prosperity, and long-term strategies to replace lost economic activity. Read the Institute for Nuclear Host Communities founders’ take on the Vermont Yankee plant closing.

  • Modeled after the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s successful BUILD grant program, BUILD GREEN would invest $500 billion over ten years in state, local, and tribal projects to jumpstart the transition to all electric public vehicles and rail and help modernize the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Could this be one of the answers to economic revitalization in your town?

  • Check out the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit created to help communities untangle the policies and procedures that get in the way of smarter growth and sustainable development. This is a great resource for communities struggling to implement and build support for sustainable development policies, and to identify the most problematic policies or issues that typically accompany transitions like a local power plant closure.

Events and Opportunities

Funding Opportunities

To Attend

  • Vision-to-Action: Set Your Sites on Engagement (webinar): Join our partners at CCLR to hear about the V2A process and tools used for the rural town of Ponderay, ID and other examples and tools to help you develop a successful V2A for your community. Is a V2A the right next step in your community’s transition? 

  • Passed and Proposed: What the Federal Budget Means for Brownfield Redevelopment (webinar): You’ve no doubt heard of the Moving Forward Act and President Biden’s proposed Build Back Better Plan, but did you know that both include major provisions that support brownfields redevelopment and land reuse? Join CCLR, Sustainable Strategies DC, and U.S. EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization for an in-depth discussion on federal funding coming down the pike and how you can, and should, leverage it to turn neighborhood liabilities into community assets. 

  • Strategies to Support Small Local Businesses and Entrepreneurs (webinar): Join the NADO Research Foundation on April 27 from 2-3 p.m. ET for a conversation with Local First Arizona’s CEO Kimber Lanning and Director of Rural Programs Liza Noland and learn more about best practices and strategies that your community and region can adopt to support small business development, entrepreneurship, rural economic development, tourism initiatives, equity and inclusion, and much more. 

  • Where’s the Money? Funding Your Active Transportation Project (webinar): Join the Safe Routes Partnership for a free webinar on April 22 at 1 p.m. ET to learn about frequently used sources of funding for active transportation projects (cycling, rolling, walking) in the US, how to find out what funding is available, and tips for navigating the funding process.

News

Check out The Nuclear Decommissioning Collaborative’s regularly updated news board to keep up to date with nuclear decommissioning initiatives across the country. 

 

Know someone who might like to join this email list? Signing up is easy.

To inquire about partnering with the team on behalf of your community, please fill out the contact form on SGA’s website.

This effort utilizes Federal funds under award ED20HDQ3030068 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the project team and do not necessarily reflect the views of EDA or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Smart Growth America
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Contact: https://smartgrowthamerica.org/about-us/contact-us/

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