Funding for Ithaca’s plan to reduce its climate emissions and several other New York-based projects to protect the environment is in jeopardy since President Donald Trump ordered a pause on grants related to addressing climate change.
Last month, Trump issued an executive order to freeze funds related to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — both key pieces of legislation passed under President Joe Biden that included billions of dollars in funding for environmental and energy-saving projects.
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt the freeze, but several grant recipients around the country and in New York say their funding remains inaccessible or uncertain. On Friday, the newly-confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said in a video posted on X that he plans to rescind $20 billion already allocated for climate-related projects.
In Ithaca, two federal grants totalling $2.5 million, meant to fund programs related to the city's Green New Deal, were frozen as of Monday, according to the city’s sustainability director, Rebecca Evans. The Green New Deal, which passed in 2019, includes commitments for the city to electrify its buildings and help low-income residents adapt to climate change.
Federal funding makes up 85% of the city’s Green New Deal budget, Evans said at a recent city meeting. Without the grant money, the program has only around $50,000 that is not already allocated.
“For all intents and purposes, the Green New Deal does not have any available funding,” Evans said at the meeting.
Evans said she has received no clear communication from the Department of Energy, which oversees some grants, or any other federal agency about what to expect. However, she said she is deeply concerned about long-term funding.
In one executive order, Trump explicitly called for “terminating” the Green New Deal. There is no federal Green New Deal, which refers to a set of proposed economic policies meant to address climate change and provide jobs. Ithaca is one of the few cities that has passed a local version. Many of its objectives, like ensuring investments in climate projects “reduce historical social and economic inequities,” have also been targeted by Trump’s executive order banning work related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“All of the things that we do, it's like they wrote them in an executive order and said no more,” Evans said.
Uncertainty across several programs
The federal government has announced more than $15 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to fund projects across New York, according to data shared with WSKG by Atlas Public Policy.
Some of the funds were first announced in 2022 and have already been dispersed and spent. But recipients of newer awards say they’re uncertain about whether they can expect to receive the money the federal government said it would give them.
For example, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation announced over $260 million for funding to help school districts and municipalities across New York pay for electric buses and charging stations. Many school districts had applied for these funds to help them meet the state’s directive that all school buses be electric by 2035.
Some districts, like the Newfield Central School District outside of Ithaca, have already received funds from the EPA to purchase electric school buses. But other districts and municipalities are waiting on funds that remain uncertain.
Tompkins County was awarded $1.2 million for the local transportation provider TCAT to purchase hybrid buses. A county spokesperson said the county has not received any official communication about this grant and is closely monitoring federal developments.
Other funding, including for programs to help farmers reduce energy use and grants for energy-related research, also remains uncertain.
For example, the Department of Energy allocated more than $10 million to Cornell University over the past year to help fund research and energy-related programs, according to federal data. In a statement, a university spokesperson said the university is evaluating how the executive orders will affect its funding.
“As more concrete information becomes available, we will provide guidance on how the executive orders and other directives may impact our programs and community members,” the Cornell spokesperson said in the statement.