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Solar panels. (American Public Power Association photo used via Unsplash)
President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy executive order puzzles David Funk.
The order targets clean energy efforts, pausing the distribution of already promised funds associated with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for at least 90 days so leaders in the new administration can review the expenditures.
What happens after that is unknown.
Funk, president of the nonprofit Zero Emissions Northwest, is based in Spokane, Wash. He helps farmers and other rural businesses secure funding for new technologies to reduce their power use. The group landed 67 energy-efficiency grants worth $3.7 million that, once the new tech is implemented with additional funds, should save $20 million for its recipients. Currently, more than $250,000 in promised grant dollars are being withheld.
With dollars from his own U.S. Department of Agriculture contract also frozen, Funk had to furlough his three employees at Zero Emissions Northwest.
“It does not connect with me how pausing this funding is making America great again,” Funk said. “All I see in the near future are layoffs and pain.”
Companies, nonprofits and government agencies in Washington state and beyond are reeling from the order, which Trump announced the day he was sworn into office. A U.S. District Court judge temporarily halted the administration’s efforts via the Office of Management and Budget to pause the flow of federal grants, loans and other financial assistance. But in many cases, resources for clean energy and climate efforts remain locked up.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., attacked the Trump administration’s actions from the Senate floor on Wednesday.
“If this illegal freeze continues, people will lose jobs and communities will lose out on projects that have been in the works for years,” Murray said.
It’s unclear how many organizations and government projects are being impacted. Some are struggling to get answers; others are quietly, nervously trying to navigate the morass; and some express confidence that deals will be honored. There are new threats on the horizon — including the possibility that billions of dollars in federal loans will be canceled.
Helion Energy CEO David Kirtley, right, addresses a tour group at his Everett, Wash., facility during the CleanTech Alliance’s 2023 Fusion Week. Fusion is one of the clean energy sectors that appears to have support from the Trump administration. (Helion Photo)
Zero Emissions Northwest has helped a wide variety of projects win support. On the low end is a $7,000 grant for a dairy farm eager to adopt a new technology for quickly and efficiently cooling fresh milk. On the high end is a $540,000 grant for a farmer to install solar panels that can power irrigation equipment.
“The grant doesn’t make you money,” Funk said. “The grant pays for the pain related to innovation.”
The CleanTech Alliance, a Seattle-based trade association, is trying to help its members make sense of the situation. That includes figuring out how to rewrite grants without newly taboo language such as references to diversity, equity and inclusion; clean energy and climate change; and over-burdened communities.
It’s also pointing startups to alternate funding opportunities from corporate programs and foundations.
“We assumed there would be changes in federal agency funding priorities,” said Mel Clark, president and CEO of the CleanTech Alliance. “That is to be expected with any change in administration.”
But climate and energy tech is notoriously challenging given that many businesses are building more cost- and time-intensive hardware solutions, as opposed to often quicker-moving software technologies.
Delayed or canceled grants and loans, as well as lingering financial uncertainty, can pose a big risk.
“I have to assume there will be companies that will fold because of the particular timing, depending on what funding they were dependent upon,” Clark said.
Companies further along in their business development could fare better. And some Trump appointees have voiced an interest in technologies such as nuclear power, fusion energy, geothermal and hydropower — plus fossil fuels.
“We are not surprised by the new administration’s freeze and review of all grants,” said Rick Luebbe, CEO of Group14, by email.
The next-gen battery company is building massive production facilities in Moses Lake, Wash., that more than two years ago received $100 million from the Department of Energy to support the project. In September, it announced a new DOE grant to build a silane factory that will produce a gas essential for silicon battery manufacturing.
Group14’s BAM2 silicon anode manufacturing facility in Moses Lake. (Group14 Photo)
“Group14 has negotiated our second DOE contract for $200 million to build a silane factory in Moses Lake, and we appreciate the continued support from the DOE, with whom we’ve successfully worked for over a decade — including during the first Trump administration,” Luebbe said.
One of the difficulties for some grant recipients is that federal dollars can be intertwined with state support. Under President Biden’s policies and Washington state law, climate and energy grants have required applicants to include benefits for underserved communities that historically have been harder-hit by pollution and climate impacts.
The new ban on DEI efforts upends that synergy and puts funding in limbo.
“That will continue to create tension around how projects move forward,” Clark said. “And many projects where we’re used to using that braided funding with state dollars and federal dollars, that braided funding will probably come undone.”
And some of the money that’s issued by state departments originates with federal agencies. Grant recipients should review the sources of their funds as those pass-through dollars could be at risk, Clark added.
While the CleanTech Alliance scrambles to advise its members, the organization itself receives some federal support and is strategizing a new course.
With the Zero Emissions Northwest employees on furlough, Funk is doing the work of four people during unprecedented funding chaos. His grant recipients, at least, remain optimistic that their efforts will be deemed in alignment with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“All of our farmers believe that the funding will come back,” Funk said, “because they believe their projects are one of the good ones.”