The EPA’s Brownfields Program Included Alabama In Its Report

gao.gov, Nov 10, 2005

The 10 States We Contacted Included:

Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Stakeholders reported that EPA’s Brownfields Program provides an important contribution to site cleanup and redevelopment efforts by funding activities that might not otherwise occur. EPA grants typically support the initial stages of brownfield redevelopment and are important in that they fund activities and address sites—such as those with more complex cleanup requirements, less desirable locations, or liability or ownership issues—that private lenders and other government programs often do not, according to stakeholders.

Stakeholders identified three potential options for improving or complementing EPA’s Brownfields Program:

First, they suggested eliminating the provision in the Brownfields Act that, in effect, makes landowners who purchased a brownfield site prior to January 2002 ineligible for EPA grant funding. While the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004 temporarily suspended the eligibility date for that fiscal year, stakeholders asserted that the clause continues to discourage brownfield redevelopment by limiting program eligibility.

Second, stakeholders suggested changes to address the underutilization of revolving loan funds. As of November 2004, grant recipients had loaned out less than $29 million (about 17 percent) of the $168 million in revolving loan fund grants awarded by EPA.

Third, stakeholders believed that a federal tax credit, which would allow developers to offset a portion of their federal income tax with their remediation expenditures, could complement EPA’s program by attracting developers to brownfield
sites on a broader national basis. While EPA and other organizations with brownfield expertise were also generally supportive of a federal brownfield tax credit, we did not analyze the costs and benefits of such a tax credit or any other potential incentives.