Despite pulling back from a total freeze on federal funding, the Trump administration is still blocking tens of millions of dollars for renewable energy and climate projects in Maine.
And the disruption of the new administration’s first few weeks has sowed uncertainty about the fate of current and future awards.
Trevor White said he recently tried to access federal funding provided to the Passamaquoddy Tribe to pay for a new air quality monitor.
Instead, the environmental officer for the tribal government at Indian Township in eastern Maine discovered that grant and two others had vanished from the Environmental Protection Agency’s payment system.
"All the funding that came out of the IRA - the Inflation Reduction Act - has disappeared. I think that totals about $7.8 million," White said.
The money was earmarked to install solar panels on 200 homes across the Passamaquoddy community. And some was dedicated to test nearby lakes for mercury and monitor air pollution.
White said it has been impossible to reach anyone at EPA to explain what happened to the funding awarded last year.
"All we know is that the grants have disappeared. We have no communication with EPA. They won’t reply to emails, they won’t reply to phone calls," he said.
The Trump administration seemed to back down last week after its declaration of a freeze on federal spending sparked a huge backlash from lawmakers and state officials.
But programs funded by President Joe Biden’s signature laws, the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, are still blocked.
Many awards doled out to states, local governments and businesses through the laws were aimed at climate and clean energy developments now in the crosshairs of the White House.
The Maine Governor’s Energy Office said that on January 31, a $62 million Solar for All fund was no longer available.
The grant was among 61 awards to states and tribal governments from the $5.5 billion program intended to help low income families access renewable energy and lower electric bills.
Energy office Spokesperson Afton Vigue said about $26,000 had been spent from the grant and two people were hired to develop Maine's program. The energy office is "currently awaiting further guidance from EPA with respect to the Solar for All grant award," Vigue said in a statement.
The future of other major federal grants is uncertain, but Maine received major awards from the Biden administration including $69 million to help communities withstand the effects of climate change. A recent analysis from environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Council of Maine found the state received $2.2 billion in public and private investment through Biden-era clean energy spending.
Lawmakers including Maine first district Representative Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, sent letters to the heads of EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday, demanding an explanation for funding disruptions and the immediate restoration of awards.
"We are outraged by the [EPA]'s blatant and unlawful actions to abruptly halt crucial programs that are fundamental to the Agency’s core mission of safeguarding human health and the environment," the legislators said in a letter to agency director Lee Zeldin.
Abandoning programs is a "betrayal of responsibility uphold duly enacted spending laws," the lawmakers added.
"This is unacceptable and must be reversed immediately and completely to comply with the law and to protect the health of all Americans and the environments where they live."
Andrea Colnes, deputy director of the New England Forestry Foundation said uncertainty and lack of direction makes it impossible to move forward with the groups federally funded projects in Maine.
"At this point, the chaos and confusion that has been created through the Trump administration is making it extremely difficult to access and use those funds," Colnes said.
The nonprofit planned to use part of a $15 million award to reimburse landowners who manage timber for higher-value wood and to trap more greenhouse gas. But without knowing if funding is secure, it can’t move ahead with its contracts, Colnes said.
"Landowners in Maine are really going to be the ones that suffer here," she added. "These millions of dollars that were intended to help them compete in the global forestry industry are being impacted."
In response to an email seeking information about the status of federal funding to Maine, an EPA spokesperson said that neither the agency "nor the Department of Justice can provide further information on pending litigation."
