DOGE cuts cost tribes $470M, gutting funding for climate projects

The Trump administration cancelled a $20 million grant for a wind project in Kotzebue, Alaska, leaving it paused and the community heavily reliant on costly diesel. The cancellation is part of wider cuts to tribal programmes, which Brookings researchers say are worsening longstanding underinvestment and limiting Indigenous communities’ ability to respond to climate change.

The Native Village of Kotzebue uses diesel for about 75 per cent of its power, and residents spend roughly 20 per cent of their income on fuel. The proposed wind project was expected to reduce diesel’s share to around 40 to 50 per cent. Brookings reports that DOGE removed $468 million in funding for tribes, about half for environmental and natural resource work; a separate $25 million solar grant to the Hopi Tribe was also lost when the $7 billion Solar for All programme was cut.