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EPA grant cuts impact Miami, local climate organizations

The first year of the Trump administration has brought climate grant cuts and freezes.
The first year of the Trump administration has brought climate grant cuts and freezes.

“Tell me five things that you did this week that you think are valuable to the American people.” 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees read this statement in a weekly email from the Department of Government Efficiency only a month into President Donald Trump’s second term. The agency had already begun to see a shift in demeanor from the federal government. 

These initial changes soon grew into an unprecedented loss of federal support for the EPA, and an attempt at complete overhaul of EPA funding. Much of these changes to funding have manifested in grant cuts.

In spring 2025, the EPA began laying off workers, freezing climate funding and revoking previously-awarded climate grants. With over $1.5 billion in climate grants cut, the federal government has made a historic shift on environmental support. 

“For so long, the federal government has been a partner in trying to achieve big things,” said Jim Vinch, former EPA attorney and current professor at Miami University. “Without the federal government being a partner, it's really hard to achieve the same level of big things that you would normally achieve.”

These changes to federal climate funding have affected universities, researchers and nonprofit organizations.

For climate projects, Miami receives grants and donations from a number of different sources. Miami’s Mitchell Sustainability Park, for example, launched with a $5 million alumni gift, but received grant funding as well. 

Olivia Herron, Miami’s director of sustainability, said Miami obtained a $100,000 grant for the park’s solar panels from the Honda Foundation this year. 

Herron also said the project was previously awarded but unable to accept a $500,000 Build America, By America grant from the Ohio Department of Development. Miami submitted a waiver for this grant during the period between administrations. This waiver was never reviewed due to closures within the EPA by the current administration. 

“They told me that the office at the Federal Department of Energy that reviewed the waivers was closed,” Herron said. “There are now no employees to review that waiver, and without that waiver being approved, the Ohio Department of Development could not give us the money.” 

Despite this loss, the Mitchell Sustainability Park is progressing.

 “We haven't stopped.” Herron said. “But it was going to give us more cushion in our budget.”

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Miami has also felt the loss of certain Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions. The IRA was introduced in 2022 and pledged significant funds to climate and energy initiatives in America. 

The tax credit aspect of the IRA is particularly significant to public universities. Prior to 2022, institutions had to be paying taxes to the federal government to receive tax credits. This made Miami, a public institution, ineligible for this money. With the Inflation Reduction Act, nonprofit organizations were given access to these tax credits for climate projects relating to clean energy.

When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law in July, IRA tax credits relating to certain types of clean energy were limited significantly with the intention of being repealed completely in coming years. These included solar energy projects, like Miami’s Mitchell Sustainability Park.

Herron said the university was still able to receive tax credits on the Mitchell Sustainability Park because enough money had been spent on the project at a point when the tax credit was still in effect.

“We had spent enough money on this project to get the credit, but if tomorrow I wanted to start building a new solar array, we would not,” Herron said.

Fortunately for Miami, geothermal energy has not been subjected to the same restrictions. 

“The only thing that I'm aware of in that piece of Biden-era legislation that the Trump administration has left intact is for geothermal,” Herron said, “which for Miami, is phenomenal, because we are such big users of geothermal as a strategy in our sustainability toolkit.”

Grant cuts have also had an impact on the City of Oxford. Sustainability coordinator for the City of Oxford Reena Murphy said that although Oxford has not dealt directly with climate grant cuts, funding cuts have still had an influence.

“If we know that there is grant funding available that is reliable in the future, we would be able to invest in projects to go after that grant money,” Murphy said. “But when we're not sure if there's going to be money available in the future for implementation, it is more difficult for us to plan.”

Murphy mentioned that Cincinnati’s Regional Climate Collaborative Green Umbrella has been affected by changes to federal funds. 

Earlier this year, Green Umbrella lost a $500,000 federal grant intended for climate justice. Green Umbrella is unique because they secure federal funding that can be distributed to nearby nonprofit organizations; a grant cut for Green Umbrella means a loss of funding for the nonprofits they support.

In response to federal funding cuts, Green Umbrella has turned to other forms of funding on the regional and local levels.

As for Miami, Herron said many of the university’s sustainability projects have been in the works since 2010, and that although beneficial, tax credits and grants are not necessary. 

“I don't want people to feel dismayed,” Herron said. “We are going to continue to do this work.”

halljp3@miamioh.edu 

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