By Gabby Birenbaum — Tens of billions of dollars have been on hold for weeks for projects across the states as the Trump administration reviews IRA spending. 

An enormous law, the IRA created a number of grant programs to stimulate renewable energy production and make energy efficiency upgrades more affordable and accessible for Americans, with a focus on low-income Americans.

Many of these large grants are structured as passthrough grants, meaning federal agencies grant a large sum to a state agency, which then coordinates its own in-state application and disbursement process. Many were scheduled to begin this year.

These funds are legally obligated — while a pause or delay is allowed, a rescission — without congressional approval — is tantamount to impoundment, which is illegal per a 1970s era law. Key figures in the Trump administration, however, believe impoundment is permissible, and want a court fight.

Despite court orders for the Trump administration to unfreeze funds, grantees have remained in limbo.

“This is mostly going to hurt families and small businesses and local economies,” said Leah Rubin Shen, a managing director who works on Western energy policy at Advanced Energy United, a trade association for renewable energy groups. “These are the ultimate beneficiaries of a lot of this funding.”

The Nevada Angle

Enormous pots of money are supposed to come to Nevada. The Governor’s Office of Energy (GOE) is the primary recipient of several enormous grants, all of which are frozen at the moment, from the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. To highlight a few:

  • The Home Efficiency Rebates Program and Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program, for which Nevada is eligible for nearly $100 million for rebates for individuals to get home energy efficiency upgrades or electric appliances, with the value of the rebate dependent on the projected energy savings to a household.
  • The Grid Resilience Formula Grant, which funds upgrades to build resilience of the state’s electric grid, including weatherization and fire prevention.

The home efficiency rebate applications are scheduled to open to eligible households in Nevada in “early 2025,” according to GOE’s website. GOE spokesperson Laule’a Akana-Philips said the office has not adjusted timelines for the delivery of any federal grants. 

But if the delay goes on longer, GOE and other entities may have to push back deadlines. GOE’s biennial budget request for 2025 to 2027 is reliant on federal funds for 45 percent of planned expenditures.

The Nevada Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) — the state’s clean energy bank — is also experiencing challenges. NCEF manages three large grants through the Environmental Protection Agency:

  • Solar for All, a $156 million program for moderate and low-income households, businesses and nonprofits to finance community and residential solar
  • The Clean School Bus Program, from which NCEF received nearly $8 million in grants to replace aging school buses with electric buses
  • A Community Change Grant of $20 million for the Walker River Paiute Tribe to provide home energy upgrades, new water infrastructure and the construction of a Community Resilience Hub for emergencies including extreme heat events

Xiltali Ayala, a caretaker in Las Vegas, said she was planning to apply for Solar for All funds to install solar panels on her house to save on her monthly energy bills. During the summer, when the air conditioning needs to be on constantly, Ayala has struggled between paying for rent and electricity. 

If the funds don’t become available, Ayala said her living situation may become too untenable to continue.

“We’re thinking of moving out of Las Vegas,” she said through a translator. “Because if we don’t get to a solution, what are we going to do?”

Potential relief came Friday morning, when NCEF, for the first time since Trump issued his executive order, was able to draw down funds from its Solar for All account. But the Clean School Bus program and Community Change Grant remain frozen.

Some grants go directly to nonprofits, such as the Valley Electric Association (VEA), a Pahrump-based co-op that received an $80 million IRA grant from the Department of Agriculture to build new energy storage systems and add electricity to the grid, making energy prices less volatile. VEA is counting on the money to begin construction in the second half of 2025. That money is currently frozen.

In a statement, VEA CEO Robby Hamlin said he believes the mission of the project is in line with the Trump administration’s goals. 

“We understand the administration shares our priorities of affordable, independent and reliable electricity, and sincerely hope for their continued support of this project for rural Nevadans,” Hamlin said. 

The Impact

NCEF, the GOE and VEA are proceeding with the expectation that they will receive their funds, given the government is legally obligated to provide them. But NCEF is also working to ensure partners are not burned in the process. 

School districts, for example, can still invoice NCEF for buses, and NCEF will know whether they can draw down funds before school districts have to pay for anything. But if the federal spigot is not turned on soon, agencies will need to start delaying timelines.

— This story is used with permission of The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates to this and other Nevada Independent stories.

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