Last April, UMass Dartmouth environmental justice researcher Nefeli Bompoti received a $500,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to help small and underserved communities build the capacity to participate in government environmental programs.
The project was going to receive additional funding from the EPA in January. But the money never came. In March, Bompoti found out the EPA had terminated her three-year grant agreement as part of cuts led by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“I was expecting that you’re not going to have more (grant money),” Bompoti said. “I didn’t expect that they were going to take the money back.”
Since entering office, Trump and his administration have rushed to cut funding for climate, clean energy, and environmental justice initiatives nationwide. South Coast researchers, community officials, nonprofits, and farmers are concerned about the local impacts of these cuts.
On Jan. 20, the president issued an executive order calling for an “immediate freeze” on disbursing billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He issued another order to shut down environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government.
Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and Department of Agriculture have since been implementing these executive orders. They have been freezing and terminating grant awards they say don’t align with the Trump administration’s agenda.
States like Massachusetts and other grant recipients have been successfully challenging those efforts in court. Yet the Trump administration has failed to comply with several court orders, and has continued to halt and eliminate grant awards.
The Trump’s administration’s grant funding freeze — and widespread layoffs across federal agencies — have been sparking protests among environmentalists across Massachusetts. Roughly 30 EPA staffers demonstrated in opposition to the cuts in downtown Boston last week.
Local impacts of the Trump administration’s cuts have been limited thus far.
New Bedford and the Southeast Regional Transit Authority received large grants for climate, electric vehicle and environmental cleanup projects. Project leaders say they have received or spent those funds.
Some South Coast communities access federal funding through state climate and clean energy grant programs. Successful legal actions by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell have kept funds for those programs flowing, for now.
Still, community leaders also say it is too early to tell what the local consequences of the Trump administration’s actions will be.
The status of some federal climate and clean energy funds for local farmers remains unclear, and some nonprofits are being impacted.
More cost-cutting efforts and uncertainty around this funding will discourage communities from taking action on climate change and deteriorating infrastructure, local environmental leaders say. That could slow economic development, hurt public health, and leave residents more vulnerable to intensifying natural disasters.
“It really is a step backwards,” said Westport Planning Board Vice Chair Bob Daylor.
State takes a stand
The Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act were passed by Congress during former President Joe Biden’s term.
They invested a combined $1.5 trillion-plus into the economy for infrastructure, clean energy, and climate initiatives. Massachusetts received roughly $1 billion for projects.
Massachusetts got part of a $450 million grant to boost regional heat pump manufacturing and adoption. It got $156 million to incentivize solar adoption in disadvantaged communities. It got hundreds of millions more to clean up groundwater contamination, build air quality monitor networks, and to fund water and wastewater projects.
On Jan. 27, the Office of Management and Budget told federal agency leaders to implement Trump’s executive orders and freeze IRA and IIJA funds. OMB also ordered freezes on grant funding for federal health, education and housing programs.
That caused panic among states, businesses and nonprofits that receive billions in federal funding annually.
Attorney General Campbell and a coalition of 20 other state attorneys general sued the Trump administration to halt the grant funding freeze on Jan. 28. So did a coalition of nonprofits. On Jan. 31, federal courts granted these requests.
Still, the Trump administration did not unfreeze all grant funds. Some awards were frozen and unfrozen intermittently. At times, grant awards not originally included in the freeze were frozen.
So on Feb. 7, Campbell and the state attorneys general filed more enforcement motions for some funds that were withheld. Those were granted by a federal judge in Rhode Island. Now, essentially all IRA and IIJA funding that was legally guaranteed to Massachusetts is accessible.
Still, the state has been experiencing other kinds of delays for federally-funded climate and clean energy projects, like canceled meetings with federal administrators and added layers of review. One $378,000 grant to replace hazardous dams remained frozen as of mid-March. In late March, the state announced the Trump administration delayed disbursing more than $50 billion for lead pipe replacement.
New Bedford received more than $11 million in loan forgiveness through the state for sewer system upgrades and lead pipe replacement in 2024. City officials report that there have been no impacts to the city from this delay.
State officials say the work to secure necessary federal environmental funds is not complete.
“We will continue to work with the Attorney General’s Office to pursue a stop to this funding freeze and deliver for Massachusetts,” a Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs spokesperson said.
Communities, transit have grant funding security for now
New Bedford Public Information Officer Jonathan Darling said the city is not experiencing issues with accessing funds for federally-funded environmental projects. Those are “far along.”
New Bedford and the EPA received $72 million to finish cleaning up the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site. The city received $5 million-plus in grants for 24 zero-emission school buses and charging infrastructure.
New Bedford also received an $800,000 EPA grant in 2020 to assess and redevelop the Morse Cutting Tools brownfield site. It received another $400,000 EPA grant to build a network of continuous air quality monitors around the city. It has received millions through the Brownfield Revolving Loan fund to clean up contaminated properties.
Darling added that communications have not changed with the EPA teams responsible for the two Superfund sites in the city. City officials will assume cleanup activities and grant funding will proceed as normal until proven otherwise.
The Southeastern Regional Transit Authority received $12.2 million in IIJA grants to bring on 18 hybrid electric buses and charging infrastructure by the end of 2026. The transit agency has not yet experienced any impacts from any federal funding freezes, said its administrator, Erik Rousseau.
Officials in Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Westport have not lost any revenue thus far, thanks to the state’s legal work. But they are concerned about what may happen if federal cost-cutting efforts for climate and clean energy initiatives continue.
Dartmouth received federal grant funding through the state to build electric vehicle charging stations, and for energy-efficient upgrades in municipal buildings, said town administrator Gary Carreiro.
Clean energy projects save Dartmouth and its residents money, amid rising fuel costs, Carreiro said. If federal funding for state grants disappears with budget cuts, or could disappear, it may stop towns like Dartmouth from participating.
Fairhaven has accessed federal money through the state for natural hazard mitigation planning, said the town’s land use coordinator, Bruce Webb.
The state environmental grant programs that Fairhaven participates in often involve both planning and action components, Webb said. Cutting funding could prevent them from acting on the climate and resiliency issues that the planning grants targeted.
Westport got $4 million in federal funds through the state for PFAS remediation, said Daylor. Those dollars have gone toward building a water line down Route 6, which is almost complete.
Farmers, nonprofits confront uncertain funding
While federal grant dollars are currently secure for cities and towns, the status of other local awards remains unclear.
The IRA allocated about $18 billion in USDA conservation, rural energy, and “climate-smart” agriculture programs. All but roughly $600 million remains frozen, and the agency is requiring applicants for rural energy grant programs to revise their applications.
Southeast Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP) Executive Director Susan Murray said her organization is gathering information about the scale of the impacts on local farmers.
Climate-smart agriculture programs have been a “win-win” for New England farmers, Murray said. They have provided farmers money to build up soil health through actions like rotational grazing and cover cropping. Healthy soils help growers mitigate extreme weather and improve yields.
IRA-funded conservation programs also supplement farmer income with small payments for projects like high-tunnel greenhouses. New England is one of the most expensive places to live and work on a farm, so losing funding would be a big hit to local farmers, Murray said.
SEMAP is encouraging farmers to reach out to their elected officials to share about what they need, Murray said. The organization is also looking into ways they can help fill some funding gaps.
Old Bedford Village Redevelopment Corporation recently received a $100,000 EPA grant to boost job recruitment, training and outreach in New Bedford’s underserved communities for clean energy and environmental remediation projects.
That grant is being terminated by the EPA, according to a list obtained by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The organization’s executive director, John “Buddy” Andrade, said they will do their work “with or without the money.”
U.S. Rep. Keating’s concerns
The Trump administration is in the early stages of dismantling federal grant programs tied to the IRA, IIJA, and environmental justice, said U.S. Rep. Bill Keating. So his office has not yet heard extensively from affected South Coast constituents.
However, these efforts will “disproportionately impact” the region if they are sucessful, he said.
The Trump administration terminated the EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program on day one. It was geared towards supporting communities like New Bedford that have suffered from problematic federal infrastructure projects, Keating said.
Keating also said he worries about cuts to the EPA’s Southeast New England Program. That uses federal grant money leveraged with money from local communities and nonprofits to address issues like wastewater infrastructure, flooding and wetlands loss.
Cutting SNEP would cause regional infrastructure to deteriorate further, and disincentivize future economic growth set up by South Coast Rail and the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, he said.
Cuts to research funding for UMass Dartmouth, a regional “economic engine,” are also a concern, Keating said. He urged the public to engage with the issue and demand greater accountability from the current unified Republican government.
Email environmental reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@newbedfordlight.org.
Thank you for this excellent and factual report. The president is violating Article 1 of the US Constitution. Only the US Congress has the right to withdraw money that it has granted. We can exercise our 1st Amendment Rights of Free Speech and Freedom of Assembly by attending the Democracy Rally at the Dartmouth Mall on Saturday, April 5th at 11 A.M.
Nature has already died, despite what we tell ourselves, we have crossed the meridian.