Dozens of nonprofit groups operating programs aimed at helping disadvantaged communities adapt to climate change have been caught up in the Trump administration’s spending cuts.
For days, several of the organizations who I’ve spoken to have been unable to access the government’s payment system to pay for staffing and expenses, or have had their grants listed as “suspended” in the system. Many have received no explanation from the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the funds.
As of Tuesday, the groups were still looking for answers.
The nonprofit groups were awarded the money through the agency’s $1.6 billion Community Change Grants program, which was authorized under environmental justice efforts included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden. Most of the awards were announced in December, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.
The funds went to more than 100 groups, intended to fund projects to install wastewater treatment systems in Alabama homes and connect remote Alaskan households to water and sewer systems, among others.
In a statement Monday, the E.P.A. announced it had canceled $1.7 billion from “more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs.” These cuts, the statement said, came after “working hand-in-hand” with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to “rein in wasteful federal spending.”
But it was not clear whether the 400 canceled grants included any from the Community Change Grants program. The E.P.A. did not respond to a request for comment or clarification about which grants were canceled.
As of Tuesday, dozens of groups reported that they had lost access to the payment system, said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, an organization made up of former E.P.A. staff members.
The chaos and confusion is indicative of a larger effort by the E.P.A. to claw back billions of dollars allocated during the Biden administration, which has left several climate nonprofit groups reeling and led some of them to sue.
Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, has embraced President Trump’s cost-cutting mandate, promoting his work with DOGE on X and attempting to claw back $20 billion in “green bank” grants, repeatedly referring to the money as a “green slush fund.”
Confusion reigns
In December, Michelle Moore, the chief executive of Groundswell, a community development group focused on clean-energy initiatives with offices in Georgia and Washington, D.C., received a $20 million contract from the E.P.A. The money would pay for things like home repairs and efficiency upgrades, and provide emergency services during power outages in Alabama and Georgia.
Since it received the grant, Groundswell has submitted invoices for expenses like payroll and equipment to a Treasury Department system about once every two weeks. The money typically arrived within 30 days.
But on Friday afternoon, when Moore’s team logged in to file for reimbursement for the previous weeks’ expenses, they were unable to submit the request. This was still the case on Monday. As Moore called around, she heard from other grant-funded organizations that had the same problem.
Many are unsure of how they’ll move forward, and some face the prospect of having to cut staff or pause work.
“It’s not like if you get a $20 million grant, somebody cuts you a $20 million check,” said Roos. “Being locked out of this system basically means you can’t pay your bills,” she added.
Money ‘suspended’
Something similar happened to Ilyssa Manspeizer, executive director of Landforce, a nonprofit group that received a $14 million grant to build a facility that would turn fallen city trees into reusable lumber, and to fund a job-training program. The grant disappeared from her federal invoicing portal on Friday, even as two other E.P.A. grants remained accessible.
Siddhartha Sánchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, said the $1 million E.P.A. grant his organization had received was listed as “suspended” on Monday afternoon. A second grant from the agency was also shown as “suspended” in the organization’s account.
Weeks of whiplash
In December, the E.P.A. announced 84 grant awards of up to $20 million each as part of the Community Change Grants program. Twenty-one awards had been announced last summer, and projects were chosen from a pool of 2,700 applications.
At least some of those grants were frozen, and later unfrozen, after an initial executive order on Jan. 27 from President Trump directed federal agencies to halt spending.
Manspeizer, of Landforce, said she was able to access some of the money in mid-February after a Rhode Island judge issued a temporary restraining order. She added that the confusion had contributed to high levels of anxiety among her colleagues.
“Our budget is 25 percent, if not 30 percent federal, and these two grants are a big part of that,” said Sánchez of the Bronx River Alliance. “We’ve had to reach out to our elected officials, to different donors and foundations in order to try to mitigate the possibility of losing the funds.”
Moore, the Groundswell leader, said she planned to move forward with work on the grant despite the locked funds. Once Groundswell hires contractors, it will be on the hook for on-time payments.
“We’re responsible for doing the work, and at the end of the day, we’re responsible and accountable to the federal government, to the E.P.A. as the awarding agency, and we’re responsible and accountable to our local partners and the people we serve,” she said.
The Trump administration
U.S. energy secretary pledges to reverse focus on climate change
Before a packed crowd of oil and gas executives on Monday, Chris Wright, the new U.S. energy secretary, delivered a scathing critique of the Biden administration’s energy policies and efforts to fight climate change, and promised a “180-degree pivot.”
Mr. Wright, a former fracking executive, has emerged as the most forceful promoter of President Trump’s plans to expand American oil and gas production and dismantle virtually every federal policy aimed at curbing global warming.
“I wanted to play a role in reversing what I believe has been a very poor direction in energy policy,” Mr. Wright said as he kicked off the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, the nation’s biggest annual gathering of the energy industry. “The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change, with people as simply collateral damage.” — Brad Plumer
Renewable Energy
Big gains for solar last year in the U.S.
The U.S. power grid added more capacity from solar energy in 2024 than from any other source in a single year in more than two decades, according to a new industry report released on Tuesday.
The data was released a day after the new U.S. energy secretary strongly criticized solar and wind energy. The report, produced by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, a research firm, said about 50 gigawatts of new solar generation capacity was added last year, far more than any other source of electricity. — Ivan Penn
Ask NYT Climate
What should I wear to work out?
Chances are, your favorite exercise attire is synthetic, made from petroleum-based fibers like nylon, spandex and polyester. Materials that don’t exactly scream “climate friendly.”
Natural fibers have issues, too: Growing cotton can use huge amounts of water and pesticides, the sheep that give us wool emit methane, and processing bamboo can produce a lot of pollution. Altogether, the apparel and footwear industries account for more than 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
So if you want to keep your body fit while also keeping the planet healthy, what should you do? — Susan Shain
More climate news:
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Only seven countries met the World Health Organization’s air quality standards last year, according to Reuters.
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The Washington Post examines one of the most scrutinized oil pipelines in the world: a proposed 1,000-mile project in Uganda that underscores the battle over fossil fuels in the developing world.
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Climate change could alter the Earth’s atmosphere enough to drastically cut the available space for satellites, according to a new study highlighted by The Associated Press.
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The Trump administration’s next climate moves could be to make the case that climate change helps humanity. “The claims would be highly misleading and ignore decades of scientific research that shows climate change will have increasingly dire effects,” E&E reports.
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