For the small town of Kersey, near Greeley, a $1.1 million federal grant gave the community a chance to finally clean up and demolish a decrepit grain elevator that sits downtown.
The relic, once owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, had burned down twice and is now covered in asbestos and pigeon feces. Community members hope the site could one day host a museum, fitness center or even another, more-welcoming type of facility related to grain: a brewery.
That is, if the funding continues. On Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent an email informing the town it would pause any funding related to two climate and infrastructure laws, which includes their grant.
The Kersey cleanup is just one climate- and infrastructure-related project in Colorado, adding up to at least hundreds of millions of dollars, facing uncertainty after President Trump’s executive order last week paused certain environmental and infrastructure spending.
| CPR's Climate Team wants to hear from listeners and readers about our climate coverage. Fill out this short survey to let us know what you'd like to see. Thanks! |
On Monday, the White House budget office froze trillions in additional spending, though a Tuesday memo clarified the pause only applies to programs targeted in earlier executive orders — including one targeting environmental programs. A federal judge blocked the order Tuesday just before it was to go into effect.
Kersey feels confident that after a review, their funding will be unpaused and move forward, according to Susie Thielbert, a grant analyst for the town. But the prospect of losing the money entirely would be devastating for the project.
“We wouldn’t be able to move forward without it; we are a very small community. It would just stalemate it,” Thielbert said.
How Trump’s executive order imperils climate and infrastructure projects
Trump’s "Unleashing American Energy” directive called for an immediate reversal from former President Biden’s efforts to shift away from fossil fuels and promote environmental justice.
One section ordered a pause on the disbursement of funds authorized through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, two landmark climate and infrastructure laws signed by Biden.
In Colorado, those laws have helped fund Kersey’s project, as well as highway repairs, electric vehicle charging stations, wildfire mitigation, water conservation on the Colorado River and huge investments in renewable energy. Together they've awarded at least $3.7 billion to over 400 projects in every corner of Colorado, according to data from Atlas Public Policy.
The Trump Administration later issued a memo clarifying the order only applies to funding related to climate mitigation and electric vehicle infrastructure. Agencies could still distribute funds after consulting with the White House Office of Management and Budget.
“The memo indicates there’s a lot of confusion in the administration about where spending should continue, and where it should stop,” said Martin Lockman, a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University in New York.
On Monday, Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse sent a letter along with more than 150 House Democrats asking the White House to provide a list of programs, projects and activities covered by the directive to pause disbursements related to the climate and infrastructure laws.
“As a businessman, President Trump ought to know that delaying an ongoing construction project comes at an immense dollar price,” the letter reads. “As a president, he ought to know that delaying these projects needlessly makes our government less efficient.”
The initial executive order turned out to be a prelude to a broader pause on federal spending. On Monday, the White House budget office ordered federal agencies to freeze trillions in grant spending by 5 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday, and ordered agencies to review awards that apply to categories like “the green new deal” or diversity efforts.
In a Tuesday memo, the White House budget office clarified that the freeze applies to programs singled out in the executive orders, and “any payment required by law to be paid will be paid without interruption or delay.” A federal judge paused that order just before it was set to go in effect Tuesday.
Environmental funding a boon for Colorado, but huge projects still at risk
The EPA alone has announced awards for at least $1.1 billion in Colorado to fund infrastructure and clean energy projects, according to KC Becker, the former EPA administrator of the regional agency office that oversees Colorado and five other states. Trump transition officials fired Becker and her chief of staff last week, a common practice following a change in administration.
Becker said her staff tried to dole out funding as quickly as possible before Trump took office.
“We were guessing that Trump would want to pull dollars back,” Becker said. “So there was a big effort in the last couple months to just finalize any grant awards.”
In Colorado, Becker said, the EPA has finalized hundreds of millions of dollars in spending for electric school bus purchases, climate pollution grants, and clean water infrastructure. Projects or grants that have finalized contracts with the federal government will be much harder to claw back by the Trump administration, Becker and Lockman said.
“People who have contracts in place have legal rights that are independently defensible,” Lockman, of the Sabin Center, said. “The federal government is required to fulfill its contractual obligations under those agreements. And there’s little that the Trump administration can do about that.”
But Trump still has the ability to delay and shape spending, which could delay projects, Lockman said. And Colorado projects still negotiating their contracts remain vulnerable, Becker added.
Those include a landmark water rights deal on the Western Slope funded by the Interior Department as well as the EPA’s largest grant in Colorado: a $326 million award to Colorado State University to fund research into methane emissions reductions.
In an email, Dan Zimmerle, director of CSU’s methane emissions program, said their contract finalization had been delayed for additional review, which could potentially push back the project’s start.
The president has also rolled back initiatives meant to address environmental justice, which usually aim to address longstanding disparities in access to clean air or water. Last Monday, Trump revoked two Biden-era executive orders requiring agencies to consider environmental justice when spending infrastructure or inflation law money.
In Colorado, the EPA has awarded at least $73 million to environmental justice programs, according to data from Atlas Public Policy.
Becker fears those projects are the most likely to see their funding revoked. Green Dot Coalition, a Denver environmental justice nonprofit, anticipated President Trump could try to claw back a $500,000 EPA grant it received along with other groups to add trees and vegetation to the city’s Globeville neighborhood near Interstate 70. That’s one reason the group rushed to pre-order supplies ahead of the planting project set to begin this spring, said executive director Jevon Taylor.
“We refuse to allow anything we've created or worked hard on to just be thrown away,” Taylor said.
The Trump administration is targeting clean transportation, too.
Under Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado’s efforts have largely matched the Biden administration’s push to decarbonize transportation through boosts to public transportation projects and vehicle electrification, said Matt Frommer, transportation and land use policy manager at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
But now, Frommer said, Trump’s executive order and changes to a key grant program have put Colorado at odds with Washington.
“We're almost in complete misalignment now with the federal transportation and climate policy,” Frommer said.
State and local officials have won more than $200 million in grants from the infrastructure and inflation laws for climate-friendly transportation projects in recent years, according to Atlas Public Policy data. Those projects include $66 million for Front Range rail infrastructure, tens of millions of dollars for electric transit buses in Summit County and the Roaring Fork Valley, and $25 million for new transit “mobility hubs” on the Western Slope.
Like Becker, Frommer also is worried that the Trump administration may try to pull back some awards. A November letter from the Federal Transit Administration to the Colorado Department of Transportation, which CPR News obtained via an open records request, says more than $100 million in federal transit dollars have been awarded to projects in the state but are not yet spent.
CDOT helps administer and process many of the grants. Agency spokesman Matt Inzeo said they “continue to monitor federal updates and are working to understand how the recent executive orders may change federal funding.”
What is more clear, at this stage, is the suspension of at least some federal electric vehicle funding programs and a change in direction of future spending.
The executive order paused spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure grant programs. The order also signals the administration’s intention to end subsidies for EV production and consumer sales. Colorado officials have capitalized on federal dollars and added some of the state’s own to push Colorado to the forefront of EV adoption.
“We're going to have to figure out how to compensate at the state and local levels, which Colorado is better positioned to do than a lot of other states,” Frommer said. “But it's still a lot of money.”
The Trump administration also recently changed criteria for a large competitive grant program to penalize projects that aim to reduce driving, increase walking, biking, and vehicle electrification, or benefit marginalized communities. It still, however, appears willing to fund highway projects.
That suggests the state may have difficulty landing federal dollars for future transit projects like the Federal Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard bus rapid transit projects, Frommer said. (Denver officials say its $150 million federal grant for East Colfax BRT is already “in the bank.”)
In metro Denver, though, public transportation service may escape the reach of any dramatic changes made in Washington. About 75 percent of the Regional Transportation District’s budget comes from a local sales and use tax and just 20 percent comes from the federal government.
CEO and General Manager Debra Johnson told a Denver City Council committee last week that the distribution of some federal dollars is written into law and would be relatively difficult to change.
“We’re in this pattern where we’re going to wait and see where we are,” she said, adding: “But you just never know what lies ahead.”
Amid uncertainty, litigation is a sure bet.
The orders and federal funding guidance have already triggered an avalanche of litigation from advocacy groups and state governments. Grant recipients may have a strong case to make in federal court to receive their funding, said Lockman, of the Sabin Center.
But the lasting impact of the orders may be the confusion and uncertainty that throws projects in limbo, or makes others die on the vine.
“We’re talking about programs that fund and build real stuff in the real world,” Lockman said. “And uncertainty is just fatal to that, because we’re trying to plan and make investments today to build for the future.”
