Environmental leaders believe grants and other sources of funding will allow them to continue cutting pollution, even if federal money isn’t available following the change in administration.
Experts from the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC), a Springfield-based public policy organization, believe the state will still commit to climate initiatives such as renewable energy, although Chicago will have to consider the possible reality that IRA funding will be eliminated.
“Part of it is just speculative, so we don’t know how aggressive the new administration is going to be in taking back those funds,” said Iyana Simba, city programs director at IEC.
“I think we have to assume that things will be terrible,” said Jennifer Walling, IEC’s executive director. “But also, there is current money that still needs to be spent, and a lot of it is in the door already. I think it’ll take a while for the IRA to be completely unwound, and there will be pieces that aren’t unwound. It’s not completely predictable what will occur, and we should make the best use of the funds that are in the door already.”
Both Simba and Walling said that IEC will continue to push for policies that would help the city reach its climate goals, such as the Cumulative Impact Ordinance, which aims to identify environmental justice communities and develop action plans that will lessen their environmental burdens, and the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance, which would set an indoor emissions standard in newly built commercial and residential buildings and homes.
In December, IEC published an analysis of Chicago’s 2025 budget recommendations, in which the mayor proposed increasing the budget for the Department of Environment by almost $1.9 million.
In addition to money from the city, Walling said that climate funding could come from Cook County programs.
As for the state, “there are things like the state Home Energy Rebate program, which still has to be implemented, so there’s some other pieces there that could be coming,” Walling said. Then there’s the Illinois share of money from the IRA Climate Pollution Reduction Grants.
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