EPA cancels grants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has terminated grant agreements totaling $20 billion. The grants were issued under the Biden administration to form a Green Bank program, designed to finance clean energy and climate friendly projects.
The idea was to create a nationwide version of government backed and nonprofit green banks that are currently operating in 17 states. The law gave the EPA $27 billion to grant to states, tribes, nonprofit groups and public private consortiums.
Those grantees in turn can lend or grant funds to projects or initiatives across the country while bringing in private sector lenders or financial backers to try and multiply the effects of this money.
In April of 2024, the EPA picked eight coalitions to receive the funds.
https://weareclimateunited.org/news/us-starts-green-bank-to-finance-community-climate-projects
In order to receive funding from the Green Bank, the project must comply with the Build America Buy America Act, which requires that certain federally funded projects must use steel, iron, manufactured products as well as construction materials that are made in the United States.
https://www.ntia.gov/programs-and-initiatives/build-america-buy-america
The projects must also follow very complicated data reporting requirements.
Their loans and investments must simultaneously reach hard to serve populations and earn returns that can be reinvested for future projects, while attracting private sector investors to contribute funds to the projects as well.
As a result, even though the money was obligated last year, very little of it has been spent on projects to date, the termination of the agreements comes weeks after the EPA froze the grants, which EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has claimed are marred by conflicts of interests as well as potential fraud.
Defenders of the program argue that the money was awarded and the government entered into legal contracts with the organizations charged for administering these funds. No evidence of fraud or abuse has been demonstrated by the EPA.
They claim that the action by the Trump administration is simply a breach of contract. The move is being appealed.
Confusion about the ongoing federal budget negotiations or resolution and the future renewable energy tax credits
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) established a base tax credit for renewable energy projects of 30 percent, meaning that homeowners or developers can deduct 30 percent of the cost of solar projects from their tax bill.
Additionally, commercial developers can deduct another 10% if their project is located in a low income or an energy community.
Energy community is basically one that's historically dependent upon fossil fuels for much of their employment. There is an additional 10 percent credit for projects that utilize domestically manufactured products.
The tax credits were set to remain in place through 2032, but many Republican lawmakers have targeted these tax credits claiming that they will reduce tax revenues by as much as a trillion dollars over the next 10 years.
They want to use those revenues to offset the cost of expanding provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is projected to reduce tax revenues by about $4 trillion over that same period of time.
Repeal of IRA opposed by Republicans
21 GOP representatives came out publicly to oppose the wholesale repeals of these Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.
Tax credits are quite popular with Democrats as well as Republicans.
A study of the effects of the IRA by consulting group E2 https://e2.org/ found that Republican districts have benefited substantially from the IRA tax credits.
Based on their findings, nearly 60% of the announced projects that represent 85% of all the investments and 68% of jobs are in Republican congressional districts.
Poll late last year found that 87% of Americans support federal incentives to deploy renewable energy, including 78% of 2020 Trump voters.
Bird Study
A study by the British Trust for Ornithology looked at the impact of solar development on local bird populations.
They found that the solar farms resulted in a greater number of bird species and more birds overall than surrounding cropland. According to the study, the number of species on mixed habitat solar farms were about two and a half times higher than nearby farmland.
The study also showed that solar farms offer important habitat for a number of threatened bird species. The mixed habitat solar farm survey contained many of the landscape features that birds prefer. These features include hedge rows as well as tall and diverse vegetation around the solar arrays that provide cover nesting sites as well as food sources
