"A faith-based Indiana group and heating contractors in Maine are among hundreds of businesses and organizations stymied by EPA’s attempt to claw back $20 billion of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund."
"The noise of hammers and saws was so loud that David de Leon stepped outside of the house where he was working, so he could talk and be heard.
De Leon is construction manager for Bridge of Grace Compassionate Ministries Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a faith-based nonprofit and one of hundreds of organizations across the country that until recently stood to benefit from President Joe Biden’s effort to catalyze a clean energy transition.
Now, Bridge of Grace is among the groups at the losing end of the chokehold that President Donald Trump’s administration has put on that plan. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency in mid-February placed an extraordinary freeze on one of the largest climate programs in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. A federal court is now weighing whether that action defied EPA’s contractual obligations, several laws and the grantees’ Constitutional rights to due process of law, with the next hearing in the case set for Wednesday.
The fight in Washington threatens to slow Bridge of Grace’s plans to expand its work buying and rehabilitating dilapidated houses in Fort Wayne. The group aims to reduce blight, provide much-needed housing for low-income families and cut energy consumption and costs with efficiency and appliance upgrades. And yet, de Leon remains optimistic that some good can still come of this."
Marianne Lavelle and Dan Gearino report for Inside Climate News April 1, 2025.
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