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A group of governments in the Denver metropolitan area has managed to hold on to a nearly $200 million federal grant to unleash heat pumps in the region — and now it’s putting that money to work.
The group has retained the funding, awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024, even as the Trump administration has canceled or attempted to claw back tens of billions in grants and loans doled out under Biden’s landmark climate and energy laws: the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The Denver Regional Council of Governments, whose members include area cities, towns, and counties, launched the new Power Ahead Colorado initiative last week. The program aims to improve local air quality and public health by tackling pollution from the region’s biggest emitters: buildings. Fossil fuel–powered appliances release toxic compounds, both indoors and outdoors, that increase the risk of a wide range of maladies, including asthma and cancer.
Power Ahead Colorado will provide free energy-efficiency and heat-pump retrofits to about 2,000 low-income households, offer personalized help from on-call energy advisers, issue $40 million in rebates for home energy upgrades, and train an estimated 4,800 heat-pump installers.
Eradicating gas usage is essential for Colorado to decarbonize its economy by 2050. About seven out of 10 households in the state burn gas as their primary source for heating.
“Everybody across the region stands to benefit from cleaner air, and Power Ahead Colorado … is specifically designed to do that,” said Chris Selk, communications and engagement program manager of Power Ahead Colorado.
Installing a heat pump to heat and cool spaces, a heat-pump water heater, and other electric appliances that eschew fossil fuels ​“has such an incredible impact on your comfort, your safety, and your health,” Selk added.
This flash of good news comes during a murky time for clean energy and decarbonization.
The Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress have canceled or unlawfully terminated more than $113 billion in emissions-reducing program funding committed under the Biden administration, according to Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environmental justice at Lawyers for Good Government, a nonprofit that has been advising affected organizations and communities on how to address frozen funds.
The sheer number of federal attempts to rescind project funding — and court decisions ordering their release — has been dizzying.
Take one of the biggest buckets of grant money: the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which included the National Clean Investment Fund ($14 billion), the Solar for All program ($7 billion), and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator ($6 billion). Grant recipients are fighting for their awards in multiple ongoing lawsuits related to each one of these programs, according to Blanchard. There are four cases about Solar for All funding alone.
But some smaller programs have attracted less attention, including the $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program — the source of funding for Power Ahead Colorado. The EPA selected state, local, tribal, and U.S. territory recipients in 2024, and, to Blanchard’s knowledge, all have continued to receive funding, though the reasons are unclear.
Power Ahead Colorado had a brief period last January when it was ​“unable to draw down any funds,” Selk said. ​“But that, thankfully, cleared up, and we haven’t had any issues at all.”
Selk estimates that the heat-pump program, which gets reimbursed for its spending, has used roughly 8% to 10% of its grant since 2024. But she expects outlays to pick up speed now that the program has launched. The federal grant lasts until October 2029.
Colorado is investing millions more of federal dollars in decarbonization efforts, the state publicized last week.
With a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Training for Residential Energy Contractors program, the state energy office announced $1 million to teach about 400 heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technicians how to install heat pumps.
The state has also awarded $21.6 million, out of its own $50 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, to local governments to foster resilience and lower energy costs through emissions-slashing initiatives, including adopting all-electric building codes and making it easier to develop large-scale solar, wind, and geothermal projects.
The federal government may be throwing up roadblocks to local climate action, but Colorado is demonstrating that the Trump administration hasn’t completely choked political will for ditching fossil fuels.
“People are going to continue to do climate projects at the state and local level,” said Blanchard of Lawyers for Good Government. ​“And whenever we can leverage federal funding, we will.”
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