With the fight over a federal clean energy funding freeze entering its second month, two of the biggest prizes in Illinois are emissions-reduction grants totaling more than $570 million.
Now, the state appears closer to claiming both of them.
Money from an expected $430 million in federal Climate Pollution Reduction grants was blocked until Feb. 19, but the state can now access it, according to a written statement from Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
Part of a $148 million National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure grant for public EV chargers also appears to be within reach.
The federal government has legally committed to pay the state $25.3 million of the NEVI grant funds, according to the governor’s office.
“The state will continue to pursue every option available to ensure we receive the funds promised to us,” the statement said.
The state’s progress comes at a time of uncertainty for clean energy, kicked off by President Donald Trump’s strongly worded executive orders freezing federal funding for a wide range of decarbonization projects, including those created or expanded by President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Two federal judges have issued orders requiring the Trump administration to unfreeze trillions of dollars in funding for a wide range of projects, including clean energy.
Lawyers for the Trump Justice Department have argued that the president and the Office of Management and Budget “plainly have authority to direct agencies to fully implement the President’s agenda, consistent with each individual agency’s underlying statutory authorities,” according to The Associated Press.
In Illinois, which aims for 100% clean energy by 2050, the effects of the clean energy funding freeze have been felt by small nonprofits as well as major state agencies.
“I think right now the summary is chaos and uncertainty, which is not something you want to see with these programs,” said Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling.
Walling, whose organization is tracking the effects of the freeze, said that some nonprofits that expected federal clean energy grants either don’t know if they’ll get them or have heard of “some sort of cancellation.”
“I can’t give details, but I definitely know that nonprofits have already started to look at — or started to perform — layoffs, based on federal funding maybe not being available in the future,” she said.
At Slipstream, a Wisconsin nonprofit focused on building decarbonization, Managing Director of Policy Robin Lisowski said that federal funds have been frozen and unfrozen multiple times.
“I’ve heard from multiple organizations and different levels of government in multiple states that that was the experience,” she said.
Now, she said, Slipstream is hearing from some partner organizations that they have received payment, but reimbursement is still “a mixed bag.”
In Illinois, the NEVI grants have been of particular concern, in part because Trump singled out the program in one of his executive orders, and in part because much of the money has not yet been awarded to the companies that will build the chargers.
The $25.3 million that the state says the federal government is legally committed to paying would fund 37 charging stations across the state.
It’s unclear whether Illinois will retain the rest of the NEVI grant money. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which administers the NEVI grants, did not respond to a request for comment.
In January, Environmental Law and Policy Center CEO Howard Learner told the Tribune that NEVI funds are under more direct presidential control than, say, solar energy tax credits or EV tax credits.
“(With NEVI) the administration does have a degree of flexibility and can decide, with regard to new expenditures, whether to move forward or not,” Learner said.
Walling is more optimistic about the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants, which were announced in July.
“I think that money is pretty well locked up and after some discussion, it’s going to go where it needs to go and it’s going to get paid out,” Walling said.
Those grants will fund projects in five priority areas, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency website: clean and efficient buildings, clean transportation and freight, industrial decarbonization, climate-smart agriculture and clean power.
In total, those projects will reduce more than 57 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years, according to the Illinois EPA.
nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com
