Advocates in Ohio are stepping up their clean energy efforts in response to the Republican party platform and Project 2025, which detail how a second Trump administration would promote fossil fuels while cutting back federal programs for addressing climate change, environmental justice and equity.

Over the past year, Ohio-based governments and groups have won awards for hundreds of millions of dollars under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

Federal policy takes on added significance in a state like Ohio, where lawmakers have already placed extra hurdles in the way of clean energy development. That has left it up to local governments and private organizations to take the lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of that work did move ahead during the former Trump administration, said Mike Foley, director of sustainability for Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland. But, “we had to scramble and struggle to get projects done.”

“Having resources from the federal government makes things so much easier,” Foley said.

Just this week, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a grant of roughly $129 million to a partnership among Cuyahoga County and the cities of Cleveland and Painesville to build a 35 megawatt solar power facility and 10 megawatts of battery storage, and to shut down a coal-fired power plant.

Earlier in July, the Federal Transit Authority awarded a $10.6 million grant under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority for ten electric buses and chargers for low-income, high-ridership areas. More than $40 million will go to other projects in Ohio. 

“These dollars are changing communities for the better,” said Chris Tavenor, general counsel for the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund.

Project 2025 — a policy blueprint for a possible Trump presidency produced by the Heritage Foundation — calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, threatening funding for additional work in Ohio and elsewhere, as well as weakening environmental protections and programs to promote equity. While former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, he has multiple links to authors and editors of the roughly 900-page report, and has repeatedly pledged to end Biden energy policies he has dubbed the “green new scam.”

“This is getting rid of everything that’s moved the needle forward on climate and energy,” said Neil Waggoner, the Midwest manager for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal program. 

While it’s unclear whether who will win in November, advocates are nonetheless preparing for a potential Trump presidency now.

Maximizing gains

The GOP platform and Project 2025 make clear what types of energy policies to expect if there’s a change in administration, said Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club.

“It’s in black and white,” Pierce said. So now, the Sierra Club is focusing on how to “Trump-proof the gains we have made.”

One push is to help local officials identify and apply for funding opportunities that are available now. “We don’t want to leave that money on the table,” Pierce said, adding that once money is in hand it “buys a lot of goodwill and inertia.”

That goodwill might limit the extent to which federal lawmakers would scale back programs bringing money to their states, according to conservative clean energy advocates who met at the Republican National Convention last week. Others are also collaborating with partners to get money for projects in hand as soon as possible.

“We are taking a proactive approach to reach out to funders to secure funding to continue the work and advocacy for energy, climate and environmental justice,” said SeMia Bray, co-leader for Black Environmental Leaders, which collaborates with regional partners to provide resources and support for environmental and economic justice initiatives.

Jonathan Welle, executive director for Cleveland Owns, said his organization plans to apply this summer for a “substantial federal grant that would put money in the hands of longtime northeast Ohio communities, specifically Black and Brown communities, so they can chart their own energy future.” 

Welle said he’s not at liberty to discuss the proposed project’s details, but did say the group expects it would hear about grant awards late this year or in early 2025. 

“But the timing for that and the follow through from the federal government…is highly dependent on the next few political moves, including November’s election,” he added.

Work to secure federal funding didn’t just spring up overnight, though. The Reimagine Appalachia coalition has been working for several years with stakeholders in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to build capacity to absorb and direct that funding. Periodic information sessions spotlight funding opportunities and promote networking for local governments or others to develop ideas for projects. There’s even a forthcoming “grant of the month club” event.

“It’s really important to be doing this work and making sure that this current opportunity is taken advantage of,” said Amanda Woodrum, one of Reimagine Appalachia’s co-directors.

At the same time, she warned against speeding up the process too quickly.

“It takes time to put the infrastructure in place to actually direct it and make sure [funding] doesn’t go to the same old political channels,” Woodrum explained.

Going too quickly also increases the risk of backlash if projects aren’t well thought out, don’t provide what people in communities want, or otherwise fail.

“You don’t want it to go sideways,” Woodrum said. “You want to make sure you do it right.”

Getting the word out

Messaging is another top priority for advocates as the fall election draws near.  

“We are continuing our efforts of voter education, making sure the communities we love and support have updated registration and understand the importance of this election, and all elections on the local level,” Bray said.

Volunteers for Save Ohio Parks have been trying to limit drilling and fracking under state-owned parks and wildlife areas since early 2023, and now face the possibility of more drilling and fossil fuel development under a possible Republican administration.

“Yet Save Ohio Parks is determined to stay positive and keep our eyes on the prize,” said Melinda Zemper, a member of the group’s steering committee. The group is expanding its volunteer base and building additional coalitions with other environmental groups in Ohio.

Advocates also want to get out the word about benefits from current federal programs so voters are aware of what’s at stake.

“The Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund will continue its work to emphasize how the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and other important federal programs benefit Ohio communities and help combat the causes of climate change,” Tavenor said. Without continued progress, climate change costs for Ohioans will get worse, he noted.

Messaging by the Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund and other advocates also highlights the implications of Project 2025 for equity and democracy.

“Project 2025’s extreme proposals are specifically structured to benefit polluting industries at the expense of the health and environment of our communities,” Tavenor said. “Simply put, Project 2025 is a government takeover that threatens our democracy, designed by wealthy billionaires to benefit themselves and their power-hungry allies.”

Ohio advocates seek to ‘Trump-proof’ recent gains made on clean energy and climate is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Editor’s note: No Republicans voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that fact.

Nestled under a glass dome between a humid tropical jungle and a surreal cactus landscape during the Republican National Convention last week, Republican leaders extolled a glowing clean energy future for America, and avoided mentioning nominee Donald J. Trump. 

Their message — delivered at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes botanical garden — was notably different from the tune a few miles away in the Fiserv Forum, where RNC speakers such as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum called for American “energy dominance” based on fossil fuels.

Trump, in his speech the final night of the convention, promised to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one” and railed against the “green new scam” — pledges echoed in the Republican party’s platform — to loud cheers. 

In interviews with the Energy News Network, Republican leaders dismissed Trump’s frequent demonization of solar, wind and electric vehicles as empty rhetoric and expressed optimism that if elected, he would embrace the job-creation and innovation potential of clean energy.

“I think he’s been tougher on mandates,” said Utah Rep. John Curtis, who is on the U.S. Senate ballot for November. “A lot of my colleagues feel like [energy] should be more market-based-driven, and I feel the same way. This should be market-driven.”

Advocates at the event from across the political spectrum also emphasized the role of states and Congress in promoting clean energy, in lieu of support from the president.

Trump’s antipathy to renewables “does give pause to those who are advocates for clean energy and wanting to address climate change,” said Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a nonprofit organization that works to engage with Republicans. 

“However, there are two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — there’s the executive branch, and then there’s Congress. We’ve been spending a lot of time over the last decade working with members of Congress who are much more engaged on climate and advocacy and acceleration of clean energy. And that’s different than it was in 2016, when there was very little engagement on climate” from Republican lawmakers.

But it’s debatable whether Republican lawmakers are engaging on climate now. No Republican senators or House members voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, arguably the nation’s largest clean energy bill ever. And while the House Republican Climate Caucus has 83 members, many are ardent fossil-fuel boosters, and environmental advocates question the group’s seriousness.

Trump’s first term saw rollbacks to federal regulations governing waste from coal plants, withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, revocation of California’s ability to set stricter tailpipe emission standards, relaxed standards on oil and gas extraction, and much more. In a 2021 analysis, the New York Times counted 28 air pollution and emissions rules that Trump successfully reversed, and 12 related to drilling and fossil fuel extraction. 

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation policy agenda Trump has distanced himself from but is promoted by prominent backers, seeks to significantly undercut the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including by reducing the number of industries required to report emissions. The document refers to climate change as a “perceived threat” and routinely characterizes federal agencies’ work on climate as a politically motivated distraction.

Nonetheless, Reams said she’s hopeful Trump won’t seek to dismantle programs and incentives passed during the Biden administration, as he has pledged to do.  

“We still have governors that are benefiting from a lot of the laws that have been passed” under Biden, she said. “Congress took those votes. They’re supportive of all the economic development that’s coming into their districts. So I think there’s going to be a little bit more of a scalpel than a sledgehammer approach to some of the legislation that was passed” if Trump wins.

Invenergy president Jim Murphy said he would hope to appeal to Trump as a businessman.

“We’re here to share with them what we’re doing as a company, and as an industry, to complete this energy transition the responsible way,” he told the Energy News Network. “There’s no doubt it’s been started, so to do it in the right way. One thing that we’re observing is that the goals and the objectives of the groups are not that different. It seems we have a lot more common ground than people might think.” 

Michigan Conservative Energy Forum executive director Ed Rivet watched the RNC from afar, and noted all the blame heaped on Biden for rising gasoline prices.    

“All of that is fully expected rhetoric for these sorts of events, you’re sometimes throwing out red-meat soundbites,” Rivet said. “But the more important thing for the future if there’s a second Trump administration is, are they going to promote technology being the response to demand for climate action. Because demand for climate action is not going to go away just because we change administrations.”   

Rivet said Republicans — and Democrats — should prioritize competing with China on battery and other clean energy technology development and manufacturing.   

“The RNC is missing an opportunity to say, ‘Our response to climate is going to be unleashing the power of technology in America like no other country can do,’” he said. “Let’s build the best technology in the world. The RNC is missing the opportunity to punch right at the core of how do we really respond to our circumstances.” 

Ryan Huebsch, executive director of the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum, also skipped the convention and said he has resisted delving into the official GOP platform. But he is hopeful about conservative leadership on clean energy, citing the expansion of wind power in Iowa under Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, a delegate at the Republican convention. Between 2017 — when Reynolds took office — and 2022, the state’s wind power grew from 37% to 62% of its net generation, ranking second nationwide behind Texas in wind capacity.    

“They’re exporting wind energy everywhere,” Huebsch said. “Hopefully Wisconsin can be an exporter of clean and renewable energy too. We’d like to see a mix of some of President Biden’s current strategies, and see where we can come in with Trump (if he is elected). Hopefully there’s some middle ground there.” 

Polling shows little concern about climate among Republicans. A March report from Pew Research Center noted that only 12% of Republicans felt climate change should be a top priority for Congress and the president, and only 23% see it as a major threat to the country. 

Indeed, conservative clean energy proponents prefer to tout the job creation, energy independence and individual lifestyle benefits of clean energy, as opposed to the climate implications. 

Katie Bowen, a volunteer at the Republican convention and former staffer for Colorado Republican legislators, lamented that she had to give up her beloved electric vehicle when she moved to Colorado from Las Vegas. She considered Colorado “as granola as you get,” but was surprised to find few charging stations. She also became frustrated that Colorado was not doing more to promote nuclear energy, including as a way to power new data centers.

“How in the U.S. can we not only make energy clean, efficient and renewable, but also how do we power our own technology” — especially new data centers, she said. “Conservatives not only need to accept, but also get behind the whole thing of conservation is not just a political issue. It’s an everyone issue. It’s an American issue.”

Conservative clean energy advocates keep Trump’s rhetoric at arm’s length is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.