Hawaiʻi has ambitious climate goals, and federal dollars have played a critical role in the state’s progress to meet them.
Since January 2023, the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office has been awarded almost $75 million in federal funding, with close to another $70 million in the pipeline. Much of that money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
"There's always this concern about, will some of the funds be clawed back?" said Mark Glick, the state’s chief energy officer.
President-elect Donald Trump specifically targeted the Inflation Reduction Act on the campaign trail, saying that he planned to rescind unspent money set aside in the landmark climate bill.
Glick said the energy office is working to ensure funding for Hawaiʻi’s key climate and energy projects is locked in.
“We're feeling positive, but we want to make sure that we continue to make progress on them and get those funds spent and get the work done,” he said.
The state’s best way to safeguard IRA money is to spend it, and soon. But that would be a tall order to get done before Trump takes office.
Glick said that the second best bet is to ensure the funds are contractually obligated, which gives recipients a legally defensible contract or agreement about how the money will be spent.
“We feel like, once funds have been obligated, that they're locked in and it's going to be very difficult to claw back,” he said.
If Trump attempts to hang on to obligated funds, he can expect to run into serious legal challenges.
But Martin Lockman, an attorney with Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, warned that while state governments would likely have a strong case against the Trump administration, those legal battles could take years, all while clean energy and climate projects languish without funding.
Lockman also advised states to double-check that they were in compliance with all the terms of their contracts for obligated funds.
“Frankly, you should do it whenever you get a contract anyway, but it's something that is a kind of initial step to hardening state action against federal rollback,” he said.
The energy office expects to confirm about $142 million in total federal awards ahead of Trump's inauguration.
"Between IRA and IIJA, we have about $103 million that has been obligated, or in late negotiation stage where it's close to obligation," Glick said. "We expect those to be pretty much fulfilled before Jan. 20, so we're working vigorously towards that."
There are other ways that Trump could chip away at President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill aside from rolling back unspent funds, like eliminating or revising the IRA’s tax credit provisions for climate initiatives.
“Those tax credits are encouraging the development of American manufacturing capacity to build battery factories, to build EVs in the United States, and those are enormous, enormous capital investments being made today on the expectation those tax credits will be around tomorrow,” Lockman said.
“Any action by the Trump administration to inject uncertainty into whether these tax credits will be around really, really jeopardizes not just climate action but the economic benefits of the IRA as a whole,” he added.
Glick agreed that the tax credits could be in jeopardy, but he’s not sure Trump will have enough support among Republicans to take serious action against the IRA. He pointed out that the bill’s funding has gone to support major projects in red states, as well as blue states.
“I'm not sure the new administration wants to be behind killing large infrastructure projects,” Glick said.
