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Mass. officials say court wins restored most federal climate funds but uncertainty remains
Summary
State officials and the attorney general told a Senate committee that a federal court order restored access to most Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Act climate grants, but manual reviews, terminations and other tactics are still delaying some awards and creating operational risk for state agencies and local partners.
Senator Creem convened the hearing to assess how changes in federal policy have affected Massachusetts' climate programs and what the state can do to keep projects moving.
The executive branch and the attorney general said a court order has largely ended the federal funding freeze, but agency witnesses described ongoing obstacles — agency-initiated manual reviews, stop-work notices and contract uncertainty — that continue to threaten project timelines and local partners.
Undersecretary Catherine Antos of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said EEA and its agencies have traced more than $1.1 billion in federal climate awards that experienced some level of disruption since January, including temporarily suspended grants that have since been restored. She said the secretariat worked with the attorney general's office to restore access “for most of these grants,” and named specific awards at risk: a conditional $389,000,000 Grid Innovation Program award for the Power Up New England substation upgrades and a $378,000 FEMA High Hazard Potential Dam Program reimbursement that FEMA placed on hold during a new manual-review process. Antos said the DEP also faced a temporary hold on more than $3,000,000 in Diesel Emissions Reduction Act formula funding and cited a $156,000,000 EPA award to the state Department of Energy Resources for Solar for All as an example of an innovative, low-income program that had been disrupted before access was restored.
Turner Smith, Deputy Chief of the Attorney General's Energy and Environment Bureau, told senators the AG's office led a multistate suit that won a preliminary injunction blocking a categorical federal funding freeze. “Through the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction, funds are once again available,” Smith said, and the first circuit recently rejected the administration's stay request. Smith and colleagues said the office is monitoring and litigating a variety of federal administrative rollbacks — from efforts to rescind the EPA’s endangerment finding to actions affecting vehicle and power-plant standards — and that litigation will continue to be a principal tool in defending federal climate rules and funds.
Attorney General staff emphasized, however, that litigation is not an absolute fix. Julia Jonas Day and Amy Laura Khan said agencies are still using administrative tactics — terminations, stop-work orders and manual review protocols — that are not uniformly covered by the injunction and that continue to cause delays for municipalities, nonprofits and private partners. Amy Laura Khan described three motions to enforce court orders filed by the AG’s office to address remaining holdbacks, including FEMA reimbursements for dam projects.
Senators pressed for concrete answers about the fiscal exposure the state faces if federal dollars are lost. Antos told the committee that while the state cannot replace a gap on the order of $1.1 billion with state-only resources, the administration will seek to stretch state resources (including an environmental bond) and scale programs such as the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank and other financing mechanisms.
The hearing closed with senators asking agencies to continue frequent coordination, to provide the committee with lists of at-risk awards and recipients, and to propose state contingencies for the environmental bond and budget planning process. Witnesses from nonprofit and municipal partners described operational impacts from payment suspensions and urged expedited state-level support where federal money is no longer reliably available.
Massachusetts law still requires the Commonwealth to meet its statutory greenhouse gas targets; agency witnesses said that requirement has not changed and that litigation and state policy must proceed in parallel.
Massachusetts officials said they will continue to litigate, pursue federal grants where possible, and use state resources and bond financing to fill critical gaps while monitoring a rapidly changing federal regulatory landscape.
