Trump Issues An Assault on the Environment; How Advocates Push Back
Trump Administration chaos continued in Washington this past week. He first froze all federal funding to private and public agencies nationwide, saw his illegal order blocked in court, and then rescinded the blanket freeze order while continuing attacks on groups of individual programs.
Federal Funding Freeze
Trump’s new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) leadership issued its federal funding freeze order last Monday, January 27. The order directed all “Federal agencies” to “pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
The OMB order was sweeping in its scope but confusing in its targets, and breathtaking in its attempt to illegally seize new executive power to ignore Congressional appropriations, federal statutes, and the Constitution’s separation of powers. “When Congress appropriates taxpayer money, the administration must spend it. Period. These actions will not only immediately harm families and communities, making lives harder and more expensive, but also go against the very foundations of our government where Congress has the power of the purse. This dangerously broad overreach directed by Project 2025 is an extreme power grab meant to instill chaos and will cause very real harm to people in every state,” said League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Senior Government Affairs Advocate David Shadburn. “This aid must remain in place to ensure continued access to clean air and drinking water, protections for the environment, and safeguards for the health and safety of our communities.”
States Fight Back
The legal response to this illegal executive order was almost as swift as the commentary. On Tuesday, January 28, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson and 22 other state attorneys general filed suit to block the order. “This sudden freeze in federal funding is so sweeping that it could cause widespread and immediate harm across our state – delaying disaster recovery in our western counties, undercutting law enforcement, and affecting children and veterans,” said Jackson. “It violates constitutional power over federal spending, and I’m taking legal action to stop it.” Jackson’s statement noted that the freeze was issued “without advance notice and without an expiration date” and was being implemented “chaotically and unevenly” to leave states and other recipients unsure of what programs would be cut and for how long.
Rescinding the Order
Over the following day, the OMB issued a new order rescinding the first one, without explanation; the White House Press Secretary told the media that the freeze efforts would continue; and two federal judges announced judicial orders stopping the freezes until they could be reviewed by the courts. In the case being brought by the state attorneys general, the attorney representing the Trump Administration admitted that he could not provide a list of the agencies and programs affected.
“Despite the chaos and confusion that has already caused damage, here is what we know: the American people rose up to push back against this dangerous, illegal, and harmful effort to cut essential programs that support working families and protect our environment. The immediate harm to people and communities across the country may be paused, but our fight must continue. As the White House has already made clear, they will only continue to attempt to cut essential programs that help people, lower costs, and create jobs,” said LCV Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “They are still focused on banning clean energy and cutting essential programs like clean water protections, disaster relief, and home heating assistance all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. We will continue fighting back against Project 2025 and Trump’s dirty agenda at every step to ensure our families, communities and environment are safe from these attacks.”
Assault on Clean Energy
In North Carolina and other states, it is clear that the Trump Administration is in fact continuing its assault on clean energy funding. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under its new Trump-appointed head Lee Zeldin sent a nationwide memo to all grantee governments and agencies for the $7 billion Solar for All program that their already-approved grants were being cut off.
North Carolina is one of the states which will be severely impacted. The state received a $156 million EPA Solar for All grant last year for its EnergizeNC program to help the state’s low-income and disadvantaged communities with greater access to solar energy and energy efficiency projects.
In response, LCV’s Chispa program Senior Director Estefany Carrasco-Gonzalez said, “The Trump Administration’s decision to abruptly defund the Solar for All program is unconstitutional and unjust. This is a further attack on our communities, especially low-wealth communities, and to our nation. Solar for All funding was intended to support hundreds of thousands of low-income communities and families across the nation who were on their way to maximizing solar power and reducing climate pollution, making their communities healthier while lowering their monthly electricity bills. President Trump and his administration seem intent on further harming families and communities and making all our lives more difficult in every way and every state, just to enrich their billionaire oil and gas friends. His stated goal of improving our U.S. energy sources is in direct contrast to cutting Solar for All funding and will hurt us for years to come. Our leaders must demand this funding is released immediately to the communities it was already obligated to.”
