Following latest American developments

EiD wants to give you some news that for the most part is heartening, given what is going on in Washington these days:

Solar for All money unfrozen in New Hampshire

New Hampshire gained access to much of its federal climate-related funding this week, including $47 million for Solar for All, according to NHPR.

The Trump administration had frozen the money as part of what it described as a review of federal spending.

Run by the Environmental Protection Agency, Solar for All is a funding mechanism for community-based distributed energy projects. The $7 billion program was designed to provide grants affecting 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

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Win for EVs: Congress can’t overturn California emissions rules as planned

In a win for electric vehicles, the US General Accountability Office ruled yesterday that Congress can’t use the Congressional Review Act to roll back California car and truck emissions, which are helping to drive electric vehicle adoption in the state.

Republicans had been mulling using the CRA against the Biden administration’s approval of California’s nation-leading pollution standards, write Mike Lee and Alex Nieves of E&E News.

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For small energy startups, the DOE funding freeze is an existential threat

Ever since President Donald Trump put a pause on disbursing funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in January, many companies been able to access its grant money, even though they had been awarded it in the last couple of years.

As one CFO stated: “There’s basically no way for them to issue disbursements, so they can’t fund anything, so we’re not sure how long it might take for them to reimburse us for all our invoices “We’ve already spent the money at least 30 days ago, and at this point, we’re just not sure what will happen.” For major industry players, a pause on the disbursement of DOE grants can be annoying but manageable. But for smaller businesses, even a few unpaid invoices can be severely disruptive, affecting not only day-to-day operations, but potentially employee paychecks and relationships with subcontractors as well.

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Fossil fuels and nuclear would be rebranded ‘renewable energy’ under proposed Tennessee law

Two years ago, Tennessee passed a law defining natural gas as “clean energy” with the backing of two groups with ties to the gas industry, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, writes Caroline Eggers of WPLB News.

Now, lawmakers have introduced a bill (HB1143/SB0884) defining natural gas as  “renewable.” The expanded definition also would include nuclear, hydrogen fuel, fuel cells, waste-to-energy facilities, crops grown for energy production, industrial byproduct technologies, waste heat, compressed air energy storage, biomass and renewable natural gas.

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