After a federal funding freeze that lasted one month, 17 cities and counties in Georgia were notified last week that they could resume work on energy projects for which they’d been awarded grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, which administers the federal funds, regained access to the money, spokesperson Shane Hix said. That prompted a program manager to send a March 14 letter to recipients saying: “We are pleased to inform you that the temporary freeze on your project funding has been lifted. You can now proceed with the planned activities and continue utilizing your funding as originally intended.”
In metro Atlanta, the city of Covington won a grant for EV charging stations, and Fairburn was awarded money for energy audits and building upgrades.
Each city or county was awarded $150,000 in September for a total of nearly $2.6 million from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, established by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that former President Joe Biden touted as one of his signature achievements.
The block grant program aims to help local governments reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions and improve energy efficiency, according to the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. About 60% of the funding goes to disadvantaged communities, officials said.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order that froze the funding on his first day in office, but that order has been the subject of litigation. Some federal grant recipients have reported intermittent issues accessing their funding since Trump took office. Georgia finance officials initially ordered the recipients to pause grant-related activities in mid-February.
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