Has the transformative potential of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) been realized in California?

This project tracks the first two years of BIL funding to understand where investments are flowing. Spatial analysis reveals that federal infrastructure investments in California may not yet meet Justice40 Initiative's goals to benefit communities that are historically underserved, under-invested in, and overburdened by pollution. This assessment is based on publicly available award data and environmental justice screening tools. With three more years of BIL funding, we need to ensure more federal investments make it to the communities that need it most.

Visit the Dashboard to interact with the results

Visit the Statewide Awards page to keep learning more about the analysis

California BIL Award Funding By Sector ($2.16 billion depicted)

Water 73.4%

Other 2.8%

Clean Energy and Power 9.9%

Resilience 4.7%

Broadband 7.9%

Environmental Remediation 1.3%

Water 73.4%

Other 2.8%

Clean Energy and Power 9.9%

Resilience 4.7%

Environmental Remediation 1.3%

Broadband 7.9%

Note: This analysis excludes transportation grants. The portion of analyzed BIL grant awards to California (n = 401, $2.16 billion) varies across six sectors. Of this $2.16 billion, we conducted a Justice40 analysis for the 37.2% of award funding with a local implementation scope.

Justice40 Equity Analysis

Spatial analysis reveals which communities received BIL funding and whether these census tracts are underserved and overburdened by pollution, as designated by federal and state environmental justice screening tools. The Justice40 equity analysis uses two tools:

Federal: Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) was created to support federal agencies in meeting Justice40 funding goals by identifying census tracts that are overburdened and underserved, as well as Federally Recognized Tribes. “CJEST Communities” refers to the census tracts that have been prioritized for Justice40 benefits.
State: SB 535 designates Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) based on California Senate Bill 535 (SB 535), which set an investment goal for the California Climate Investments program to fund projects benefiting prioritized communities. “SB 535 Communities” refers to census tracts prioritized by SB 535.

At the halfway point of BIL implementation, our findings show that local BIL investments flowing into California may not yet be meeting Justice40 goals. Depending on the EJ screening tool used, our analysis shows that 18.2% (CEJST) or 9.4% (SB535) of the $779.29 million analyzed (n = 241 local awards) is flowing to Tribal recipients or census tracts designated and prioritized as Disadvantaged Communities.

Improved tracking and reporting may reveal that we are closer to Justice40 goals. For example, 24.3% of funding (i.e., $190.8 M, via CEJST) to 21.0% (i.e., $163.16 M, via SB 535) is going to awards that overlap more than 75% with prioritized communities or were awarded to Tribal recipients. Visit the Dashboard to explore the complete set of results for each EJ screening tool.

Spatial Analysis of BIL Funding

	CEJST Communities		SB 535 Communities
Percent of Award's Area That Overlaps with a Prioritized Census Tract	Total Funding (Millions)	Percentage of Funding	Total Funding (Milions)	Percentage of Funding
100% or Tribal Recipient	$141.90	18.2%	$73.05	9.4%
76% to 99%	$47.90	6.1%	$90.11	11.6%
51% to 75%	$180.38	23.1%	$39.14	5.0%
0 to 50%	$409.10	52.5%	$576.98	74.0%
Total	$779.29	100%	$779.29	100%

Visit the Methods page to learn more about how we did this analysis.