A demonstrator shows opposition during a demonstration at the Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 6 in Washington, DC.
Al Drago/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Al Drago/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Removing lead paint and pipes. Cleaning up contaminated land. Monitoring pollution. Making houses more energy efficient. Installing solar panels in low-income neighborhoods. Those are some of the projects across the country that were cut off from federal funding when the Trump administration paused spending approved earlier by Congress. The sweeping move is part of President Trump’s plan to roll back environmental and climate change initiatives that started under former President Biden. Federal judges intervened, issuing temporary restraining orders that prohibited the Trump administration from carrying out the funding freeze. But grant recipients, contractors and activists say promised government money has been held back even after the courts stepped in, throwing into doubt the government’s standing as a reliable partner in protecting human health and the environment. Sponsor Message
“Undermining the trust in the federal government may actually be the real point of this,” says Zara Ahmed, vice president of policy and advisory operations at Carbon Direct, which helps companies, governments and other organizations cut their carbon emissions. “Fast forward to the future, and imagine that you were trying to build a new project, and you were thinking about getting an award from the federal government. How would you think about that now?” Ahmed says. “I think people are going to be a lot more reluctant to do business with the federal government for fear of making investments, uprooting their lives, only to have the rug pulled out from under them.”
A worker installs no-cost solar panels on the roof of a low-income household in 2023 in Pomona, Calif.
Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
‘We wouldn’t be able to move forward without it’ Trump has vowed to shrink the federal bureaucracy and slash government spending. One focus is initiatives to cut climate pollution and protect communities from the impacts of rising temperatures, like more extreme storms and heat waves. A Trump administration official did not respond to a request for comment. The funding freeze is being felt across the U.S. A Missouri school district couldn’t pay for almost two dozen electric school buses it ordered to replace a fleet of diesel buses. In Springfield, Mass., officials didn’t know if the city would get money it was promised to weather