City sustainability office details $30M‑plus federal grant portfolio now paused pending federal review

The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability told the City‑County Council’s Environmental Sustainability Committee that a slate of federal awards and pending grant agreements totaling tens of millions of dollars are in a paused or uncertain state while federal grant programs are under review.

Moe McReynolds, interim director of the Office of Sustainability, said the pause stems from an executive order in January 2025 that has halted awarding or obligating funds from several Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) grant programs. “Between 2021 and 2023, our office applied for about $35,000,000 in federal funding. We were awarded approximately 30.8 [million]… but these are now in negotiation and subject to federal review,” McReynolds said.

McReynolds outlined major grant projects that the city had been preparing to implement or had been designated to receive, pending final grant agreements:

- A Federal Highway Administration Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) award roughly valued at $15,000,000 for 25–40 electric‑vehicle charging locations, with associated education, outreach and workforce development. The NOFO required a 20% match; the city sought partner letters from private EV installers to provide matching contributions. McReynolds said the city was in the grant agreement negotiation phase and had not yet incurred reimbursable expenses for that award.

- Two separate EPA Solar for All coalition awards: a $2,800,000 subaward (part of a larger statewide coalition) to fund a feasibility study for a potential 5‑megawatt solar array on a former city landfill at the Whispering Hills/Julietta site, and an $11,100,000 award as part of an Indie Industrial Heartland coalition intended to support roughly 1,000 single‑ and multi‑family household solar installations across participating cities.

- An Energy Future planning grant from the Department of Energy (~$500,000) to form an Indiana Building Innovation Hub that would provide best practices and convene multiple Indiana cities on building energy efficiency programs.

- An allocation of DOE formula funds (EECBG/Energy Efficiency) the city had proposed to use for energy audits and efficiency upgrades of municipally owned buildings valued at about $70,780,000. The office intended part of those funds to create a temporary energy manager position shared between the Office of Financial Management and the Office of Sustainability.

McReynolds emphasized that the city had generally not yet incurred large reimbursable expenses tied to these awards because final grant agreements remained unsigned. “We were working through grant agreement processes but did not have finalized grant agreements in any of them,” he said.

Committee members asked for clarification on practical impacts. Councilor Bridil Delaney asked whether the city had already spent money expecting reimbursement; McReynolds replied that the city had not incurred costs tied to the major grants while awaiting contracts. Councilor Derek Cahill and others discussed federal program standards such as NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) and shifting charging‑connector standards.

Members noted local partners named in applications, including Indy Parks, Indianapolis Public Libraries and the Indianapolis NAACP, and expressed concern about the cascading effects on vendors, workforce training programs and local organizations that had planned for the funding.

McReynolds said some previously awarded city formula funds from the DOE/EECBG era had already been repurposed and deployed locally with partners such as Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership and the Indiana Energy Independence Fund (IEIF) to support energy efficiency lending and upgrades.

No formal committee vote was taken on programmatic changes during the update; members discussed next steps, including advocacy at the federal level and continued monitoring while grant statuses evolve.