Boston Globe: Trump’s freeze on $316m for Mass. climate efforts is ‘unconstitutional,’ Markey says
Despite court orders: “Right now, we cannot access those funds,” one nonprofit leader said.
February 7th, 2025
Hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to Massachusetts’ clean energy and environmental programs remains inaccessible due to the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze, Senator Ed Markey said during a Friday afternoon press conference.
Markey said that $316 million dollars for climate programs in Massachusetts, to be distributed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, are still locked up, despite multiple federal court orders to block Trump’s attempted federal funding freeze.
“This is all funding that was passed by the House, passed by the Senate, and should not be capable of being blocked,” said Markey, who called the inability for Massachusetts entities to access climate and environment funds “unconstitutional and illegal.”
The frozen dollars include $35 million committed to the City of Boston for electric school buses, Markey said.
Trump, in his first day in office, issued an executive order that directed agencies to halt funding related to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, two major spending packages passed under former President Biden. The legislation allocated billions of dollars across the United States for renewable energy, pollution cleanups, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, public transportation, and more.
Federal judges swiftly blocked a memo from the administration’s Office of Management and Budget to enact Trump’s executive orders directing a funding freeze. However, accounts from state agencies and grant recipients across New England indicate, that at least for climate and environmental programs, the freeze is effectively still on.
One key program to build solar panels on public housing, called “Solar For All,” promised $156 million to Massachusetts. Markey said Friday that the program is still frozen. He fears the Trump administration will attempt to block such congressionally-appropriated funds from going out the door in order to pay for tax cuts, a major legislative priority for the new administration.
“It’s a very simple plot: Steal and loot the money out of environmental programs … in order to provide tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our country,” Markey said.
One locally impacted group, Health Resources in Action, was selected, along with two other partner organizations, to help distribute $48 million in federal grant funds from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The funds are intended to benefit historically underserved communities. Now, it’s unclear when the partnership, called Environmental Justice for New England, will be able to award those dollars, leading to confusion among applicants.
“Right now, we cannot access those funds,” said Kathleen McCabe, managing director of policy and practice at Health Resources in Action, during the press conference.
The partnership was on “the brink” of making awards when the money was frozen, McCabe said.
She added that projects across the region, including to prepare Vermont for flood disasters and improve transportation in Western Massachusetts, are “poised and ready” for work.
