President Donald Trump’s inauguration took place earlier this week and signed a number of executive orders, including one that directed federal agencies to pause the disbursements of funds from the IRA and the 2021 BIL. The Trump Office of Management and Budget clarified in a follow-up memo later in the week that the pause “only applies to fund supporting programs, projects or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the order,” which includes funding related to climate change mitigation and incentives for EV charging. Even with this clarification, uncertainty abounds as to what how agency heads are to interpret these orders. See more here.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Summit early bird registration is open. April 30 – May 2, 2025 in Madison, WI. Also check out the incredible mobile workshop options happening during the Summit!
- Registration for the next SIUE/MCC Grant Ready Workshop, Cleveland OH, Feb 21 is open! Register here. Please share with anyone who may benefit in the NEO region.
- Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit – Cincinnati, June 5 – workshop proposal deadline is next week!
- Michigan Municipal Executives Winter Institute (Michelle Peters presenting) – Jan. 28 – 31, 2025
AWARDS
- The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $700,000 to support extreme heat preparedness and response planning as part of the IRA. Two communities in the Midwest, Iowa City, IA and Omaha, NE won $20,000 each for developing manuals to respond to simulated heat events, fostering collaboration among state, local, tribal, and community entities to improve heat action plan effectiveness.
- Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program announced $17M in energy efficiency upgrades in southern and southeastern Minnesota.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- USDA NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
- Michigan Info Here: Deadline to apply–February 14, 2025
- Nebraska Info Here: Deadline to apply–March 7, 2025
- Region 7 Grantmaker awards, first round application review begins Jan. 31st. Next round applications (all tiers) accepted through April 30th.
- Region 5 Grantmaker awards, accepting first round applications through Jan 31st!
RESOURCES
- Valuing local sustainability offices – no great data yet, but maybe strong offices like Madison might be able to provide some good info; also WI local gov’t climate change coalition; look to ICLEI
- If you’re looking for federal resources from the Biden administration on environmental justice, Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program’s environmental justice tracker is now searchable and includes permalinks (permanent URLs) for critical reports from CEQ, OMB, and other White House Offices
- For data-heavy mapping tools like EJScreen, CJEST, FEMA’s National Risk Index and others, colleagues at Harvard’s Salata Institute have been uploading the underlying data files to the Dataverse for public download: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/ejtools (edited)
- EDGI (Environmental Government Data Initiative) is also going to reinstate some of those crucial mapping platforms like CEJST.
- DOE 179D Portal: hosts two free tools to estimate potential federal tax deductions for installing eligible energy-efficient technologies in commercial buildings. Need login to access.
- ClimateXChange Webinar Recap: Powering Change — The Role States Can Play in Transmission Reform (provides some examples for Wisconsin and North Dakota)