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ITHACA, N.Y. — The long-term future of the City of Ithaca’s ambitious Green New Deal plan, a trailblazing initiative that hoisted Ithaca to the forefront of municipal environmental policy nationwide, is in flux now that 85% of the program’s funding has been frozen by the federal government. The total amount of frozen funding is $2.5 million, largely thanks to President Donald Trump’s aggressive federal spending cuts that have focused on programs involving climate change or diversity initiatives, among others. While the path forward for the Ithaca Green New Deal (IGND) is now much murkier, even with its limited budget and other obstacles parts of the program are still striving and thriving toward a more sustainable Ithaca. Progress has ebbed and flowed since its introduction in 2019, but officials say they are still committed to its lofty aspirations.The IGND’s overall goal is to reach citywide carbon neutrality by 2030, while ensuring the benefits are equitably shared among local communities. The program has celebrated successes such as the adoption of the energy code supplement, which requires all new buildings meet a net-zero emissions requirement and the LEED Gold Certification award, recognizing the city for its sustainability and resilience achievements. The program has also faced some challenges, particularly centered on BlocPower, the city’s electrification manager, quietly pulling out of its contract to electrify buildings and provide workforce development programs. However, outside of BlocPower, the city has still succeeded in electrifying over 200 hundred buildings, said Rebecca Evans, the sustainability director for the city.The legality of the funding pause is uncertain, Evans said. The money was congressionally directed spending included as part of the energy and water development appropriations bills for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, which typically isn’t interfered with by the president, but Evans said the Trump administration has shown a willingness to test the limits of its power.The city was previously able to leverage the two awards to fund several projects, including a hydrogen project at the sprawling SouthWorks development on South Aurora Street, energy assessments at Ithaca City School District (ICSD) buildings, and workforce development programs for marginalized communities. The remaining approximately $400,000 for the IGND has come from either the city’s capital project budget or through state and private grants.Only a small amount of money toward the IGND has come from Ithaca’s tax-payer dollars. Besides staff salaries and benefits, only $200,000 has been allocated by the city budget toward the IGND since 2021, Evans said. However, the city will also be purchasing a fleet of electric vehicles, which are part of the operating budget. Turning the world’s most abundant element into energyAmong the frozen funds was a million-dollar grant that was being used to develop a hydrogen plant to power electric vehicle charging stations, providing the necessary energy for Ithaca’s electric bus fleet and backup power at the ongoing SouthWorks development. The charging stations are not part of the grant, Evans said.Spearheaded by Standard Hydrogen, the project is slated to cost between $9-$12 million total. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) also contributed $2 million, with the rest of the funding to be provided by investors and financing. If completed, the hydrogen project would allow a large number of electric vehicles to be charged all at once without having such a significant pull on the grid, which would impact rate payers, Evans said. The goal is for the system to be powered by renewables. Federal endorsements, which essentially state the project is worthy of funding and technically and financially sound, could be critical for future funding opportunities, Evans said.Because the city already needs to source the rest of the funds from investors and financing, Evans said she thinks they’ll be able to ask for more than originally planned to make up for the loss of the award. The freeze has the potential to slow the project down, said Standard Hydrogen co-founder Bill Dailey. “Certainly the current administration’s what I will call ’hostile attitude’ towards renewable energy puts us in a very precarious spot with respect to this particular project,” he said. Evans said the city has now lost contact with its grant administrators, and Evans doesn’t know if they are still with the Department of Energy. “The last that we communicated was very shortly after the federal funding pause […] and they said, ‘We’re still trying to understand what’s going on. We will reach out to you when we have clarification,” Evans said. School district also facing cutsThe other frozen federal grant, for $1.5 million, was earmarked to be split between additional energy assessments and weatherization resources for ICSD families, and green workforce development.For ICSD, this means completing energy studies for all of the district’s facilities over the course of three phases, according to Andrea Aguirre of Tetra Tech. She serves as a resource for school districts across the state, guiding them through available energy programs, which might involve energy studies or financing energy programs.NYSERDA already awarded the city $750,000 to carry out energy assessments for the school district, helping ICSD officials identify where they could improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency. Funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), approximately $376,000, would have expanded the scope of the assessments to include five additional energy efficiency and air quality measures. Tetra Tech, the firm tasked with testing for the different measures, will continue with the original baseline assessments, said Aguirre. From this analysis, Tetra Tech would be able to develop recommendations for the district, and a roadmap toward implementing said recommendations.While Aguirre is confident the project will move forward, she said she hopes the city will be able to make up some of the funding that had been allocated by the DOE grant. The federal freeze will not stop their efforts. But the loss of critical funding worries Aguirre. Green energy projects move forward because there is a near guarantee municipalities will be able to tap into local, state and federal funding, she said. Without these funding streams, projects may not be approved at all. While she doesn’t know exactly why the funding was frozen, it seems to be part of a federal operation allegedly reviewing spending streams and identifying spending that might be considered unnecessary, with a particular focus on programmatic spending to combat climate change and diversity initiatives, among others. ICSD was also slated to receive some money from the $1.5 million award toward purchasing and distributing home energy kits. The award would’ve also been used to hire student interns to run the program, Evans said. The paid interns would have trained fellow students on how to perform basic energy audits in their homes using the energy kits. A skilled green-collar workforceThe other portion of the $1.5 million DOE grant, around $762,000, was slated for improving local workforce development programs for marginalized communities, through a collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE). For years, CCE has hosted the Energy Warriors program, providing folks with the opportunity to avail themselves of the knowledge and hard skills to enter the clean energy workforce. They work with people who are critically unemployed and interested in the push toward environmental sustainability. Aloja Airewele is the leader of the Energy Warrior program. He and his staff remain optimistic about the future of the program. Despite the freeze, the Energy Warriors will continue with its 12-week course starting in March, Airewele said. In that time, 10 trainees will learn about environmental literacy and receive an OSHA 10-hHour certification. Keegan Young was an Energy Warrior. He graduated from the program several years ago and now works for CCE as an environmental literacy educator. Aierewele said he trains people so that by the end of the 12 weeks, he would feel proud to hire them himself. During his training, Young remembers being encouraged to share music and even participated in call and response circles as a way to build trainees’ personal value.The DOE award was supposed to go toward piloting a new 18-month class meant to start in February. In January, after a year of planning, Airewele received the news that funding for the class had been frozen. The new course would’ve been able to enroll more energy warriors, training them to become certified home energy auditors while providing them with a decent hourly wage, Airewele said. “That money was congressionally approved,” Airewele said. “We don’t know whether it is legal to stop what the Congress had originally [approved].”Young said he does not feel great about the freeze in the context of a treacherous housing and job market. Young said the funding freeze made him particularly nervous given the expensive housing and treacherous job markets — both of which aren’t showing signs of improvement. “Whether people believe in climate change or not, people are always going to need jobs,” Young said. “We are always going to want to save money.”The Energy Warriors managed to do both. The Park Foundation and Tompkins County have so far been major sources of funding for the program, Airewele said. With it, trainees do not have to pay for their workbooks or course fees. This upcoming cohort will receive a $250 weekly stipend. “What I can do is I can teach this class, I can educate people. I can give them environmental awareness and job skills training and they’ll go out there, and they will spread little ripples too, and they will cause changes,” Young said. Despite the uncertainty, Evans reiterated her commitment to the programs that have fueled the progress of the IGND so far.“We’re gonna do everything that we can to keep it moving forward, because this is, I think, one of the most important programs that the Green New Deal has,” Evans said.The post Ithaca Green New Deal budget cut, but projects moving forward appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.First published by The Ithaca Voice.

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