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It’s been a roller coaster of a month for recipients of federal climate and energy funding.
President Donald Trump’s January decision to freeze spending from the Inflation Reduction Act and 2021 infrastructure law was swiftly countered by court orders telling the administration to turn the spigot back on. But for weeks, state and local governments, businesses, and nonprofits remained unable to access money for weatherization programs, EV charging projects, and tons of other clean energy and climate initiatives.
Good news has started trickling in over the last week, with school districts reporting they were able to tap into millions of dollars for electric buses and state leaders from Colorado to New Hampshire saying they could once again access billions for energy-efficient building upgrades, installing solar in low-income communities, and other projects.
Still, billions of federal dollars remain locked up, affecting everything from rural clean energy projects to EV charging. Federal contractors and other workers dependent on the unfrozen grants fear they’ll be abruptly shut down again. And EPA administrator Lee Zeldin continues to try and wrest back control of $20 billion in “green bank” funds. If the freezes continue, more legal battles are likely — and legal analysts say they could eventually make their way to the Supreme Court.
Another threat to federal clean energy programs is looming as congressional Republicans put together the 2025 budget. Vehicle emissions regulations and electric vehicle subsidies are prime targets, E&E News reports, though Democrats and observers say cutting those programs will hardly help Republicans achieve the deep spending cuts they want to make.
Two more big things
What will data centers do to the grid?
After years of stability, electricity demand is on the rise again in the U.S. Data centers are driving much of that sudden change. In a four-part series, Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reported on how these power-hungry server hubs are challenging the grid and threatening to keep fossil fuel plants online longer — and spotlights the solutions that could instead help data centers strengthen the grid and further the clean energy transition. Meanwhile, our partners at Capital B reported on how the data center boom’s polluting impacts could fall especially hard on Black communities.
2025: In with solar, batteries — out with coal
The U.S. Energy Information Administration released two big predictions for 2025 this week. One report — which Canary Media’s Julian Spector broke down in a chart — shows how clean energy is on track to dominate new power generation joining the grid this year. The EIA anticipates 63 gigawatts of new power projects will come online, with more than half of it coming from solar and another 18.2 GW from battery storage.
