ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
President Trump's efforts to cut federal spending are having effects across the country. A wide-ranging spending freeze is hitting environmental projects especially hard as the administration works to unwind Biden-era climate policies. Colorado Public Radio's Ishan Thakore visited two projects caught up in the freeze.
ISHAN THAKORE, BYLINE: On a snowy, blustery afternoon, city planner Wade Broadhead is selling me on Pueblo, Colorado.
WADE BROADHEAD: This is a local historic landmark, and it's been vacant now for about two years, and the windows are getting busted out, but it's got a great location right on the...
THAKORE: There's no shortage of boarded-up buildings here on Pueblo's east side, which is separated from the town by a highway and a railroad. But Broadhead doesn't really see that. Like a good planner, he sees potential.
BROADHEAD: They see, oh, that's a good historic preservation tax project, or that's a good brownfields cleanup project.
THAKORE: One brownfields cleanup project is the El Centro Recreation Center. It's an old building, and it likely has lead and asbestos. Pueblo wants to revitalize it into a community hub. To clean it up and other sites in town, the city is counting on a million-dollar grant from the federal government.
BROADHEAD: If we don't get buildings fixed up, eventually, they get boarded up. They get burnt down. That's why these funds are so critical for us.
THAKORE: Pueblo formally accepted their grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in January. Then less than a day later, the city got an email saying their funding was frozen. Broadhead said it felt like whiplash.
BROADHEAD: Tuesday was just a really confusing day.
THAKORE: And it was a really confusing day for cities across the country. The Trump administration ordered agencies to freeze and review federal funding, especially for climate and infrastructure projects funded under President Biden. Courts have ordered the Trump administration to lift that freeze, but lots of climate-related spending remains frozen. That includes money for the Oweesta Corporation in Longmont, Colorado.
CHRYSTEL CORNELIUS: We are still waiting for payment from the EPA via our payment system.
THAKORE: Chrystel Cornelius is Oweesta's president and CEO. Her organization is expecting $156 million under a grant called Solar For All. They plan to distribute that money to help tribal communities install solar panels and lower energy bills. But when they log onto their government payment portal, Cornelius says their account was gone.
CORNELIUS: Upon trying to put in our information for payment, we are receiving an error code and that no accounts are found matching the criteria, so...
THAKORE: Oweesta's already spent at least $2 million of their own money. Now they have no idea when they'll be reimbursed, and they haven't gotten clear communication from the EPA. Oweesta's been doing this a long time. Their mission is to make sure affordable loans and credit are available to tribal communities to drive economic development. Cornelius has never seen a freeze like this, and she hopes it's only temporary because she says this program is a rare chance for tribal communities to make a dent in their energy bills.
CORNELIUS: This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we've been waiting for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
THAKORE: Experts say this funding freeze is largely unprecedented. Martin Lockman is with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. And he says the government doesn't usually walk away from contracts it signs with organizations like Oweesta.
MARTIN LOCKMAN: The government of the United States pays its debts. That is a kind of bedrock of the way our economy is built.
THAKORE: The EPA did not directly answer questions about funding for Solar For All grants in Colorado, saying only that the agency had identified inconsistencies in certain grants programs. But Pueblo has heard back from the EPA that their brownfields project is moving forwards, says Wade Broadhead.
BROADHEAD: We're really optimistic. Pueblo has a bunch of incredible historic sites, but they need a little bit of assistance to get back online.
THAKORE: Oweesta's hopeful the federal government will ultimately come through for them, too. For NPR News, I'm Ishan Thakore in Denver, Colorado. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.