GSA celebrates two-year anniversary of Inflation Reduction Act as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda

August 14, 2024

GSA Administrator visits Maine to announce $18 million for improvements at the Gignoux Courthouse

PORTLAND, ME — Today, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) celebrated the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in U.S. history. For the last two years, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda, GSA has invested more than $480 million in IRA funds for sustainable improvements to federal buildings across the country. These and GSA’s other IRA investments will support an estimated 9,500 jobs per year across the U.S. during the course of the program, plus $2.8 billion in labor income, $4.3 billion in GDP, and $956 million in total tax revenue nationally.

“This is what the Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda is all about: a government-wide approach to leveraging the historic Inflation Reduction Act so we can address climate change while boosting the American economy,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “These nationwide efforts get us to a triple win — good-paying jobs, taxpayer savings through increased efficiency, and healthier communities for all Americans.”

The GSA Administrator celebrated the anniversary during a visit to IBEW Local 567 JATC Training Center in Lewiston, Maine. GSA’s IRA investments in Maine include more than $18 million at the Edward T. Gignoux U.S. Courthouse in Portland to support renovations that will reduce energy consumption by over 40%, including by installing new air-to-water heat pumps, and new air handling units; improving electrification of the heating and cooling elements; and creating a state-of-the-art building automation system to track, monitor and control these systems to further optimize and maintain energy efficiency. The project is estimated to avoid more than 2,800 metric tons of operational greenhouse gas emissions each year, the  equivalent of taking more than 600 gas-powered cars off the road.

The Biden-Harris Administration is leading by example to tackle the climate crisis through President Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan, which establishes an ambitious path to achieve net-zero emissions from federal buildings by 2045. This announcement also furthers the Biden-Harris Administration’s Federal Buy Clean Initiative, under which the federal government is, for the first time, prioritizing the purchase of American-made low-embodied carbon materials that have lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production, use and disposal. These investments will expand America’s industrial capacity for manufacturing goods and materials of the future, address the climate crisis, and create good-paying jobs for workers in the region.

“Our Federal Government is the nation’s largest energy consumer, building and vehicle owner, and purchaser of goods and services. The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars while delivering on the most ambitious climate and clean energy agenda in history,” said Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer in the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “Today’s Inflation Reduction Act investment is another example of how the President’s Investing in America agenda is supporting U.S. manufacturing and climate action while saving taxpayers money and building healthier communities.”

“Two years ago, Congressional Democrats passed the most significant climate bill our nation has ever seen, ushering in millions of dollars in clean energy investments to boost economic growth while reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). “The improvements at the Gignoux Courthouse and across Maine are a testament to what we can achieve when we prioritize both the environment and the economy. This is how we build a resilient, sustainable future for generations to come.”

The Inflation Reduction Act includes $3.4 billion for GSA to build, modernize and maintain more sustainable and cost-efficient high-performance facilities that utilize low-embodied carbon materials. GSA’s IRA projects will implement new technologies and accelerate GSA’s efforts in achieving a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045. Through these investments, GSA estimates that it will reduce operational carbon emissions by 2.3 million metric tons, the same amount that 500,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles produce each year.

Overall, GSA is investing more than $89 million in IRA funds and more than $227 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) for federal buildings throughout Maine – in total, more than $300 million across eight projects. These investments include modernizing land ports of entry at Calais, Coburn Gore, Fort Fairfield, Houlton and Limestone. IRA funds will be used to support the electrification of the Limestone, Fort Fairfield, Calais-Ferry Point, and Coburn Gore land ports of entry. In conjunction with GSA’s leadership in purchasing clean electricity, this work helps advance the Administration’s goal of a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045.

Maine projects with IRA funding

Maine Land Port of Entry projects with IRA funding

Since the passage of the IRA in August 2022, GSA has been dedicated to encouraging the production of more sustainable construction materials through its low embodied carbon (LEC) construction material program. The result has been the development of 17,000 new Environmental Product Declarations in GSA’s IRA LEC product categories. The concrete industry alone accounts for nearly 14,000 additional EPDs, a 15% increase in the total number available. Flat glass manufacturers have tripled the number of companies with offerings meeting GSA’s most stringent LEC limits. The steel industry has also responded with an increase from 173 to 184 North American EPDs in the steel subcategories used by GSA (rebar, hollow structural sections, hot-rolled sections, cold-formed and galvanized, and structural plate). The number of cold-formed and galvanized steel EPDs has increased by about 60% from a year ago. This demonstrates the immense buying power of the federal government - when GSA demands cleaner, more sustainable products, it drives new markets.

To date, GSA has obligated $342 million towards design, construction, and modernization of it’s facilities using LEC materials, divided as follows: 

• $4.5 million for asphalt
• $144.5 million for concrete
• $138 million for glass
• $55 million for steel

This announcement is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, focused on growing the American economy from the bottom up and the middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

To learn more about GSA’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs, please visit the GSA IRA and BIL web pages.

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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing over $100 billion in products and services via federal contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.