EPA restores Minnesota’s access to $200 million carbon cutting plan

The state of Minnesota can move ahead with a $200 million plan to cut its carbon emissions after the Trump administration restored access to the federal grant.

Last week, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) said the federal spending freeze had blocked its access to grants through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“As of right now they appear to be available to us,” MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler said of the grants on Tuesday.

An EPA spokesperson confirmed in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune that the agency’s grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law “is now accessible to all recipients.”

Those laws — passed under President Joe Biden — made hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants, loans and tax incentives available for projects that seek to address climate change, including at least $25 billion distributed by the EPA.

Minnesota’s $200 million will fund a slew of initiatives, including protecting and restoring more than 10,000 acres of peatlands, reducing food waste and improving the health of farm soil, allowing it to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air.

The EPA’s move to reinstate federal funding is the latest reversal by the Trump administration, adding to an already chaotic month marked by mass layoffs and resignations in the federal government. Following executive orders by President Donald Trump aimed at undoing much of his predecessor’s environmental legacy, the EPA terminated nearly 400 of its employees earlier this month, only to rescind the decision for some of those staffers a week later.

But the EPA grants are just part of the larger pool of money from the IRA, and many other federal environmental grants going to Minnesota remain frozen or otherwise obstructed as of Wednesday. That has sown confusion among state agencies, tribal governments and nonprofits that worry the money they’ve already been awarded won’t be available in the coming weeks, months or years.

Trump’s “executive orders make it clear that these types of funds are supposed to be scrutinized and clawed back by the federal government,” Kessler said. “So, we feel very concerned over the fate of these in the long term.”

Federal grants are typically administered on a reimbursement basis, meaning some recipients haven’t received payment for work they have already done.

“I just want to be reimbursed for the work that we did,” said Ellen Reed, executive director of Mississippi Park Connection, a Twin Cities nonprofit that helps maintain the tree canopy of the Mississippi National River and Recreational Area, part of the National Park Service.

Reed said her organization was awarded more than $2.6 million in grants from the U.S Interior Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture but has only received about $450,000 so far. The reimbursement account holding the funds, which are meant to last Mississippi Park Connection five years, is no longer accessible, she said.

Tree Trust, another Twin Cities nonprofit that specializes in tree planting, lost its $500,000, three-year grant last week, when the U.S. Forest Service — part of the USDA — rescinded a grant awarded to the Arbor Day Foundation, which acted as an intermediary organization for the Forest Service.

“The funding was not frozen, the contract was officially terminated between the USDA Forest Service and the Arbor Day Foundation, which therefore terminated our contract with them,” Karen Zumach, executive director of Tree Trust, told the Star Tribune.

The city of Minneapolis was also awarded a USDA grant to remove dead trees from low-income residential properties. City officials are waiting on reimbursement for more than $140,000 for the program, which they said has been very popular among residents.

“A lot of these removals can be hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars,” said Sydney Schaaf, who manages the program for the Minneapolis Health Department. “We just heard from so many participants … folks in really stressful financial situations, who are at risk of losing their homes.”

In total, the Forest Service had awarded $1.5 billion in IRA funding to municipalities, state governments and nonprofits across the country to help replace dead and hazardous trees in urban areas. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was awarded $5.25 million from that program. And the Forest Service awarded another $33.44 million in competitive grants to go directly to Minnesota nonprofits, local governments and private companies.

The Minnesota DNR has so far requested reimbursement of $200,000 under that grant but has yet to receive payment from the USDA, the agency said this week. In a statement to the Star Tribune, the USDA said it couldn’t provide details on its grants awarded to Minnesota but expressed support for Trump’s directives to “eliminate inefficiencies” in the federal government.

“The Trump administration rightfully asked for a comprehensive review of all contracts, work and personnel across all federal agencies,” the USDA statement said. “The Forest Service is following direction provided by USDA with regards to the president’s executive orders to ensure full compliance.”

IRA funding, especially money tied to climate and environmental justice efforts, have become a key target of the Trump administration’s spending cuts.

But recipients of the Forest Service grants say their work is not a partisan issue and has broad community support.

Minnesota stands to lose 1 billion ash trees to emerald ash borer, an invasive species of beetle native to eastern Asia that typically kills an infected tree within three years, according to the DNR. State officials have found infestations in more than half of Minnesota’s counties.

“Trees are not political,” said Kateri Routh, executive director of Great River Greening, a St. Paul-based nonprofit that was awarded a $10 million grant from the Forest Service in 2023. “This is something that when we came out with this grant, people were thrilled. They want to have trees in their neighborhood.”

Great River Greening had planned to use the money to plant 10,000 trees over five years, spanning five cities and three public school districts. Faribault, Owatonna, St. Cloud, Brooklyn Center and St. Paul had all worked with the nonprofit to replace dead trees. Routh said that work has now been put on hold. The nonprofit is down more than $225,000 waiting for repayment from the Forest Service, she said.

Routh said the funding pause has created major complications in their plans, which often rely on tight deadlines with local tree nurseries. The city of St. Paul had recently removed dead and infected ash trees on public school property.

“They had to remove hundreds of dead ash trees and then had no money to replace them,” Routh said. “So, these are school campuses where students are out there just playing in the beating sun.”

Schools in Brooklyn Center and Osseo have also had to halt their dead tree removal and replacement, Routh said.

“Right now, they still have dead standing ash trees on their campuses … which are a huge, huge risk,” she said. “Without these dollars coming back into play, those trees are going to stay out there, and they’re going to come down in storms.”

In 2019, the Legislature approved $1 million in state funding to help combat emerald ash borer, but state officials say it’s a fraction of what’s needed to tackle the problem. Replacing dead or infected trees also helps Minnesota address climate change, according to the state’s Environmental Quality Board.

“Not only could Minnesota lose one billion ash trees in our forests, but over one million acres of forests could convert to non-forest ecosystems and sequester far less carbon over the long term,” the agency wrote on its website.