Energy Communities Offer Energy and Environmental Benefits to Challenged Communities

Luke Montague, of SCS Engineers, describes how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Energy Communities program provides a viable pathway for challenged communities to drive meaningful change while capitalizing on tax incentives to expedite clean energy adoption. By understanding the intricacies of energy communities, leveraging available tax credits, and embracing environmental imperatives, the program offers a pathway to transitioning to renewable energy, while reducing reliance on fossil fuels and offering a means to clean up negative impacts on the environment on blighted properties. There are three categories of communities:

  • Brownfield sites,
  • Certain metropolitan statistical areas and non-metropolitan statistical areas based on unemployment rates (MSA/non-MSA),
  • Census tracts where a coal mine closed after 1999 or where a coal-fired electric generating unit was retired after 2009 (and directly adjoining census tracts).

Originally published in California City News, read or share this article using the icons at the page bottom.

Energy Communities Offer Energy and Environmental Benefits

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Luke MontagueAbout the Author: Luke Montague is a Vice President of SCS Engineers and a Project Director. He is a Professional Geologist and licensed contractor with nearly two decades of experience in environmental consulting, general contracting, commercial and residential development, and property and asset management. He has performed and reviewed over 500 Phase I environmental site assessments (ESAs), and has completed subsurface investigations, human health risk assessments, removal action work plans, site remediation activities, geotechnical investigations, asbestos and lead-based paint surveys, and asbestos air monitoring. You can reach Luke at or on LinkedIn.