The Trump administration has eviscerated a grant program designed to make U.S. industry cleaner and more competitive by improving measurement of emissions from building materials.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it has canceled $116 million in grants to 21 recipients that include universities and trade groups, according to information obtained by the Sierra Club through a public records request.
The EPA said it had no comment because these grants are the subject of current or pending litigation. (Heatmap News first reported about the EPA list of grant cancellations.)
The agency has massively cut grants to the point that it may be difficult to keep the actions straight, continuing what has been a jarring first two months of the Trump administration. These grants are not nearly as big as the $20 billion at issue in the administration’s attempt to claw back funding for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, but they are a significant blow to attempts to reduce emissions from U.S. manufacturing.
In this case, the money was part of a $160 million grant announcement from last July which was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate and clean energy law. The EPA called this initiative C-MORE, which stands for Construction Material Opportunities to Reduce Emissions.
“This doesn’t make economic sense,” said Ash Lauth, a senior campaign strategist working to decarbonize the concrete industry for Industrious Labs, a research and advocacy group. “It’s not about efficiency or balancing the budget. This is economic sabotage.”
The Sierra Club said EPA has done a poor job of explaining what it’s doing and why it views the cuts as justified.
The University of Washington is losing a nearly $10 million grant that it was going to use to set up a training system for businesses and individuals to learn how to measure lifecycle emissions in a way that is in line with standards that are demanded by state and national governments and by companies. The partnership also included Howard University and the University of California, Berkeley.
“I have not heard anything other than what other people told me related to the Freedom of Information request or searching the DOGE website,” said Kate Simonen, an architecture professor at the University of Washington who is the leader of her school’s initiative that has now lost its EPA funding. She was referring to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Simonen said up to 13 people were set to work on the project at the University of Washington. That figure doesn’t include the people who would be working at the partner institutions.
“This is a relatively new discipline,” she said. “There’s not enough people who know how to do this work. And so we were developing an open-source curriculum so that people would be able to train themselves.”
The program’s larger goals were to help the U.S. economy and environment.
“We want manufacturing to thrive in the United States, and we want that manufacturing to not be polluting,” she said. “And we want our manufacturers to be able to communicate the benefits of their clean manufacturing to the people that are buying their products.”
Another factor is that the European Union, Canada and others are preparing to add import taxes on manufactured goods based on emissions from production, said Yong Kwon, senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club’s industrial transformation campaign. The cancellation of these grants harms U.S. companies’ ability to reduce the effect of these taxes, he said.
Some other examples of canceled grants in the program:
- Oklahoma State University was to get almost $10 million to create the National Center for Sustainable Construction Materials, an office that would promote low-carbon construction materials and help to standardize how emissions are measured for materials such as asphalt, concrete and steel.
- The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association was to get $9.6 million to work with its members to standardize and improve the measurement of emissions from producing concrete.
- The National Glass Association was to get $2.1 million to work with its member companies to develop a process for measuring emissions from producing glass.
Oklahoma State and the glass association did not respond to requests for comment and the concrete association said it has no comment.
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Donate NowThe list also includes a $6,371,426 grant for the University of Massachusetts Lowell, even though the university was not a grant recipient, according to EPA’s announcement from last summer. The agency is likely referring to a grant of the same dollar figure for the University of Massachusetts Amherst which would pay for a partnership with the American Iron and Steel Institute and the American Institute of Steel Construction to measure emissions from steelmaking.
Max Puchtel, director of sustainability and government relations for the American Institute of Steel Construction, said he hasn’t received notice from EPA about the status of the grant, but he is aware that public records show it has been canceled.
He said the grant serves an important need because “the domestic and international marketplace wants greater transparency on the sustainability of construction materials.”
His organization was one of 19 trade groups that sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Feb. 6, congratulating him on his appointment to the job and urging him to maintain the grants.
“This program will drive innovation by funding projects that improve energy efficiency, giving U.S. manufacturers a competitive edge in key industries like automotive, steel, concrete, aluminum, chemicals, and construction,” the letter said. “It will lower long-term costs, boost profitability, and strengthen domestic supply chains, making U.S. companies more resilient and less reliant on foreign suppliers. Ultimately, it will enhance energy independence, secure jobs, and create new opportunities.”
Here are the 21 projects related to the C-MORE program that have been canceled and the value of the related grants, according to the EPA, listed in alphabetical order of the grantee:
American Center for Life Cycle Assessment, Maryland, $9,696,503
American Wood Council, Virginia, $6,000,000
Collaborative Composite Solutions Corp., Tennessee, $6,000,000
Cornell University, New York, $2,499,999
EIFS Industry Members Association, Virginia, $2,189,939
Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, Illinois, $3,887,329
Hemp Building Institute, Tennessee, $6,186,200
International Code Council Inc., Illinois, $3,500,000
International Living Future Institute, Oregon, $4,662,182
National Asphalt Pavement Association Inc., Maryland, $10,000,000
National Glass Association, Virginia, $2,146,625
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Virginia, $9,632,293
Oklahoma State University, $9,990,311
Portland Cement Association, District of Columbia, $2,445,363
Prestressed Concrete Institute, Illinois, $9,975,000
Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, $1,298,635
University of California, Davis, $4,222,307
University of Massachusetts Lowell, $6,371,426
University of Texas at Austin, $3,268,757
University of Washington, $9,990,668
West Virginia University Research Corporation, $2,486,224
This story has been updated to clarify the Sierra Club’s views on how EPA has explained its actions.
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