CLEVELAND, Ohio – Now that Donald Trump has taken back the White House, what will become of America’s effort to combat climate change and promote clean energy?
Environmental advocates are pondering the question, given Trump’s pro-fossil fuel mentality, opposition to electric vehicle mandates and desire to loosen regulations on corporations.
What appears likely, however, despite the uncertain flow of federal dollars in the future, is that many projects already in the pipeline will move ahead as planned.
The Biden Administration has provided billions of dollars to address climate concerns over the past few years, much of it made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Ohio, alone, secured at least $3.7 billion in federal funding through the two pieces of legislation, according to an analysis by the advocacy group Power a Clean Future Ohio.
A large chunk has been designated to develop hydrogen as a source of clean energy, including at a Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant downstate looking to decarbonize its operations.
But many projects, including several in Northeast Ohio, will combat climate change and air pollution in more traditional ways, by promoting solar power, replacing equipment that runs on coal, and gas and installing electric vehicle charging stations.
Sources familiar with the grant-funded projects believe the money should be safe from claw back attempts contemplated once Trump is in office and both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are controlled by Republicans.
“I mean obviously anything’s possible,” said John Mitterholzer, program director for climate and environmental justice at the Gund Foundation in Cleveland, but it will be much harder if the award recipients have contracts with their granting agencies and the money has been properly transferred.
As a result, project managers with grants in the balance are hustling to get agreements in place over the next couple months.
Joe Flarida, executive director of Power a Clean Future Ohio, agrees projects under contract will be harder to rescind, but cautions that those relying on tax credits could be negatively impacted in their out years if a Republican-controlled Congress changes policy.
Flarida said it’s his understanding that if construction has started on a project, tax credits that apply at the time cannot be taken away.
Mitterholzer said he hopes there’s enough investment in the projects that rely on the tax credits that Congress will leave them alone.
“I would say the EV tax credits are more under threat than the solar,” he said.
The Port of Cleveland has been awarded $94 million from the U.S. EPA to electrify its operations.
What’s at stake
Northeast Ohio has been the beneficiary of several large climate-related grants in recent months, including an award of $94 million to the Port of Cleveland to electrify its operations. It will mean, among other things, replacing cargo-handling equipment and acquiring two electric tugboats, which would be built by Great Lakes Towing on the Cuyahoga River’s Old Channel in Cleveland.
Will Friedman, outgoing president and CEO of the port, believes it’s “highly unlikely” that the port could lose the funding and that the American Association of Port Authorities is working with the EPA to make sure all necessary contracts are approved.
About 50 U.S. ports received funding from the EPA’s Clean Ports Program, said Ian Gansler, the association’s director of government relations, and he’s expecting all the funds to be “obligated” by mid-January. The money will be placed in a special account and ports will have the ability to drawn down their portion as needed.
“We’re happy with the urgency with which EPA is proceeding here,” said Gansler, who declined to speculate on what could happen if grants aren’t obligated before Trump takes over.
Friedman said the federal government has given the port ample support in recent years and that it was a “pleasant surprise” to have the Port of Cleveland’s full request of $94 million approved by the EPA.
Solar for All
Another grant with Cleveland connections is a $156 million Solar for All award to the Industrial Heartland Coalition, which is led by a Cleveland financial Institution called Growth Opportunity Partners.
The money will be used to provide free solar access to low-and-medium income residents in 18 cities and 31 counties in eight states.
Once the EPA has finalized a work plan, it’s expected that $18 million to $20 million will be directed toward projects in Cleveland and its inner-ring suburbs, said Mitterholzer, who helped prepare the grant application.
The plan calls for installation of rooftop solar panels, as well as access to community arrays that serve multiple residents, such as a neighborhood or apartment complex.
Mitterholzer expects construction on the solar projects to start in late spring with the money being doled out as progress dictates.
He said case law suggests it would be very hard “for Congress to claw back dollars once a contract has been signed.”
A solar farm on the closed Brooklyn Landfill is slated for expansion using grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Cuyahoga County
Microgrids and more solar
Earlier this year, the EPA granted $129 million to a coalition made up of Cuyahoga County, Cleveland and Painesville to put solar arrays on local landfills and add 63 megawatts of electricity to the region.
The largest deployment of solar panels would be at the 1,200-acre site of the former Diamond Shamrock chemical plant in and around Painesville.
The influx of renewable energy would allow for a Painesville-owned power plant to shed its reliance on coal and provide power to microgrids being designed by Cuyahoga Green Energy, a new county-run utility.
The microgrids would operate independently of the larger grid if the power goes out around them.
As for the chances of the grant somehow being rescinded, “I don’t think it can be pulled back,” said Mike Foley, administrator for Cuyahoga Green Energy.
Gas stove removal
MetroHealth and its partners are moving ahead with plans to spend $17 million to remove natural gas stoves from low-income homes in nine cities in the Cleveland-Akron area.
The goal is to replace the stoves with electric models and make other improvements in 1,200 homes where at least one person with asthma is living.
Gas stoves emit un-combusted methane, which is a greenhouse gas, along with nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that are bad for people with asthma, according to Ash Sehgal, a MetroHealth physician and Case Western Reserve University professor leading the project.
Financial incentives also will be provided to residents to change to cleaner electricity suppliers.
Sehgal said he’s still waiting to receive a notice of the award and that once it’s signed and returned the project should be obligated and secure.
Dr. Ash Sehgal of MetroHealth stands with Debra Shore, administrator of U.S. EPA’s Region 5, in front of Community Housing Solutions to talk about a grant to reduce in-home pollution. (File photo)Peter Krouse, cleveland.com
EV charging stations
The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation on it $15 million grant that will help pay for 79 charging stations, including 312 individual ports, across five counties in Northeast Ohio.
NOACA Executive Director Grace Gallucci said her organization is still finalizing sites and putting together a bid package for construction, which she said should begin in the spring.
The grant money will be provided through reimbursements, she said, and in her opinion the funding stream is secure.
The future
While the ample projects in the works will ensure the pursuit of clean energy continues at some level, it’s unclear what the future holds for new federal funding.
“My presumption right now is that the Trump Administration will be pulling back on resources that local governments have been able to take advantage of for clean energy projects and that concerns me,” Foley said.
A lot depends on how much the Trump Administration slashes the federal bureaucracy. It’s been made clear that the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is looking to recommend major cuts across agencies that fund energy efficiency, renewable energy and other climate-related programs, Flarida said.
Also, Trump’s pick to lead the EPA is Lee Zeldin, a former congressman from New York who opposed the Inflation Reduction Act and has talked of restoring America’s “energy dominance.”
With such an anticipated change in focus, Ohio and its local governments could be unduly burdened as the world continues to warm. In 2022, Power A Clean Future Ohio and The Ohio Environmental Council released a report that estimated Ohio municipalities will need to increase spending by $1.8 billion to $5.9 billion a year by 2050 to address worsening effects of climate change. It could be anything from crumbling roads to flooded sewage plants to school rooms
“And if the federal government is not going to be a partner with local governments in addressing this, those costs will need to be absorbed boy local taxpayers,” Flarida said, “or state government needs to step up to fill in that gap.”
Peter Krouse writes about the environment for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. He can be reached at [email protected].