Climate leaders can breathe sigh of relief as Trump rescinds federal funding freeze — for now
After a week of chaos and bipartisan pushback, the Trump administration walks back freezing a majority of federal funding that would have impacted a lot of climate initiatives. Read More
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Trump administration officially rescinded a controversial memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget declaring a federal funding freeze that halted a large amount of federal grant money across agencies.
The memo, published late Monday evening, declared “the use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
While no “green new deal” was formally passed during President Joe Biden’s previous administration, the memo’s phrasing left many companies receiving federal loans and grants from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law unsure whether the funding — legally appropriated by Congress — was still available.
After U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily blocked the funding freeze, the administration rescinded the entire mandate the next day. But this is not the end of President Donald Trump’s attempts to restrict funding towards renewable energy and decarbonization technology.
“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” wrote White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a Wednesday post on X. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo” to “end any confusion created by the court’s injunction.”
It’s unclear what this new statement means for the future of federal funding. Regardless, any corporations, organizations or tribal entities receiving federal funds for addressing emissions reduction plans or decarbonization) should determine whether the office that manages their loans was targeted, and prepare for defunding in the near future.
Agencies and offices impacted by the federal funding freeze
Reporting by Jennifer Shutt at States Newsroom resulted in a full list of targeted programs that the administration intends to review. Essentially every federal agency is on the list, but for brevity’s sake, here are just a few programs with funds in peril:
Department of Energy
- Office of Technology Transitions
- State Energy Program
- State Energy Program Special Reports
- Federal Loan Guarantees for Innovative Energy Technologies
Environmental Protection Agency
- Climate Pollution Reduction Grants
- Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Program
- Direct Implementation Tribal Cooperative Agreements
- Indian Environmental General Assistance Program
Department of Agriculture
- Biomass Crop Assistance Program
- Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives
- Regional Food Business Centers
- Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields Program
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