Tribes are still figuring out how to start and finish renewable energy projects amid the Trump administration freezing or eliminating federal dollars from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which directed more than $720 million to Indian Country.
The nonprofit Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy estimates at least 100 tribes across the U.S. are facing cuts and bottlenecks following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is doing away with clean energy tax credits to incentivize such investments.
“Certainly the air has been sucked out of the room in terms of funding on the federal side,” said Clara Pratte, who is Diné and managing director of Navajo Power. “But I’m really happy to say that all is not lost. There’s still a lot of projects that are going to continue to move forward, but what’s also been a little bit shaky is the market and industry interest in renewable.”
Navajo Power is a Flagstaff-based public benefit corporation helping build utility-scale projects on tribal lands. Pratte, who co-founded the company, is also a Democrat vying for a spot on Arizona Corporation Commission.
Utilities have begun to rollback renewable initiatives voluntarily, according to Pratte, and “it’s all very political based — not upsetting who’s in power right now, regardless of what the economics bear out, and regardless of what the constituency wants.“
This market uncertainty is largely driven by federal decision-making, including grants being cancelled, like the EPA’s $7 billion Solar for All program, which would’ve helped power some 600 low-income homes on a reservation in northern Arizona.
“Hopi Tribe was forced to forfeit that,” said Hopi Councilman Daryn Melvin. “On one hand, you have this rationale, it being about energy and efficiency, but really, the end result of this seems to have nothing to do with efficiency.”
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