Amid the whirlwind of executive actions and lawsuits over federal funding in the weeks since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, some Georgia counties, cities and nonprofits have been unable to access millions of federal dollars they were counting on for energy projects.
Recipients of multiple different grants, spanning multiple federal departments but all related to energy, recently reported their funding was on hold.
The Lucky Shoals Community Association in the Norcross area, founded by Democratic state Rep. Marvin Lim, was awarded a $20 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Change grant in December for various environmental projects, including construction of a park and facility that will provide clean energy workforce training.
The nonprofit lost access to the funding two weeks ago, then regained it one weekend and managed to pay some expenses before it froze again on Feb. 10, Lim said. Now, the organization can’t move forward with a land purchase for the main part of the project, he said.
The grant was also going to fund three positions and partially fund seven others across a coalition of nonprofits. A couple of job offers have been paused, Lim said.
“It has, unfortunately, real human consequences, not only for the community but also for these good people that I’ve been working with,” he said.
The coalition worked on the grant application for more than three years, Lim said. To guard against waste, the EPA requires them to submit an annual spending audit, he said.
“We are doing good work, that is nonpartisan, that is trying to benefit everyone and following a fair process, and we want to be treated fairly as well,” he said.
Athens-Clarke County in November also applied to the Community Change program for a $20 million solar array and battery storage facility at the public safety campus. Local officials expected federal approval but have not received confirmation, Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz said.
“The clear chaos underway in this administration in Washington, D.C., has not been healthy for America’s cities,” said Girtz, who holds a nonpartisan office but is progressive.
Ten days before Trump took office, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program awarded Athens-Clarke County nearly $5 million for electric vehicle charging. Athens has not been able to access the money, Girtz said.
“We haven’t mobilized contractors,” he said. “We would always wait until the money was there. We’ve done the pre-engineering and we’re ready to move.”
Recipients of both grants all over the country have reported problems accessing the money, according to media outlets and trade publications.
The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, which distributes some federal environmental funding to local governments, told 17 cities and counties on Wednesday to halt energy efficiency projects worth a total of $2.6 million. Each individual project cost $150,000. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants were awarded in September.
In metro Atlanta, the money was set to pay for EV charging stations in Covington and energy audits and building upgrades in Fairburn.
“Due to the current federal funding freeze, GEFA is requesting you to pause all (grant) related activities until GEFA receives further clarification from the U.S. Department of Energy,” Energy Resources Director Kristofor Anderson said in a letter to local governments. “Please bear with us during any inconvenience that the funding freeze has caused and thank you for your understanding.”
Trump signed a long list of executive orders on the first day of his second term, including one titled “Unleashing American Energy” that froze federal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, two massive environmental and infrastructure programs that Congress passed and former President Joe Biden signed into law. Two federal judges have ordered the funding released.
A week later, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo freezing grants and loans across the federal government, but rescinded it less than 48 hours later after a federal judge stayed it.
Twenty-three states have sued over the funding freezes. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, based at the Columbia Law School in New York, this week asked local governments to sign on to a “friend of the court” brief in the case.
Some local governments in metro Atlanta reported little to no impacts from Trump’s actions. In Cobb County, some federal funding for low-income community development and senior transport services was delayed for less than a day.
“Those slight delays did not cause a significant disruption to operations,” county spokesperson Ross Cavitt said.
It is unclear if funding has been impacted for two other environmental projects in metro Atlanta.
The DOT last month also awarded DeKalb County more than $2.8 million for EV chargers. County officials this week did not respond to questions about access to the funds. And an earlier round of grant funding, in August, awarded nearly $12 million to the city of Atlanta for EV chargers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. City officials did not respond to questions about access to those funds.
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