Bloomberg News: ‘It’s Surreal’: Trump’s Freeze on Climate Money Sows Fear & Confusion – Trump ‘shut off the spigot of federal grant money’ – ‘It’s really troubling. It’s chilling’
By Marc Morano
February 4, 2025
4:54 pm
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-04/-it-s-surreal-trump-s-freeze-on-climate-money-sows-fear-and-confusion?embedded-checkout=true(Bloomberg) — When President Donald Trump’s administration last week shut off the spigot of federal grant money, which a federal judge said is likely in violation of US law, it caused confusion and panic among groups and researchers that work on clean energy, climate change and environmental justice.
Nonprofits, small businesses and state and city agencies abruptly lost access to millions of dollars that were already under contract and being used. After the National Science Foundation (NSF) paused all its grants, researchers rushed to find out if their projects were affected, and some had their salaries frozen.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the spending pause days later. But uncertainty persists, and the full impact of the disruption, which was unprecedented, is still coming into view.
“It’s been very confusing,” says Alex Bomstein, executive director of the nonprofit Clean Air Council, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Wilmington and Pittsburgh. The group has three Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants and says its access to this money was turned off, then back on, then again switched off over the course of the week. “We’ve gotten mixed messaging, and obviously it concerns our employees as well as the communities that we serve,” Bomstein says.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2025/02/04/bloomberg-news-its-surreal-trumps-freeze-on-climate-money-sows-fear-confusion-trump-shut-off-the-spigot-of-federal-grant-money-its-really-tro/
