{"id":15978,"date":"2025-10-24T23:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T05:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-clean-energy-nonprofit-loses-federal-funding\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:31","slug":"southwest-colorado-clean-energy-nonprofit-loses-federal-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-clean-energy-nonprofit-loses-federal-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Colorado clean energy nonprofit loses federal funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Four
Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE) and Shaw Solar are opening applications for Project SunShare, a solar power program for income-qualified homeowners, to help working people attain independent solar energy generation. (Courtesy of 4CORE)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Oct. 2 that it would be slashing more than $7.5 billion in funding<\/a> approved through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Acts.<\/p>\n

According to a release from the department, the funds, which were allocated for 223 energy projects nationwide, were found to be wasteful.<\/p>\n

\u201cDOE determined that these projects did not adequately advance the nation\u2019s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars,\u201d the release read.<\/p>\n

Some of the Congressionally-approved funds were to be sent to Durango-based nonprofit Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency, according to a release from the organization.<\/p>\n

4CORE Executive Director Jenny Hill said the cuts came after a coalition of state attorneys general, including Colorado AG Phil Weiser, sued the Trump administration<\/a>, which tried to cut the funds through an executive order early on in 2025. A judge blocked Trump\u2019s cuts in March<\/a>, according to the lawsuit, and Hill thought her organization\u2019s funding was safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one was completely out of the blue,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we had been working under the assumption since February that these were obligated funds that we were already spending, and that they wouldn\u2019t ever be under threat of being cut again. So when this did happen, it was a big shock to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guiding ethic of 4CORE was to help communities across Southwest Colorado where 65% of households are at or below the federal poverty level \u2013 including Ignacio, Cortez, Pagosa Springs and Saguache. The nonprofit lost $531,240 due to the cuts, and as a result had to lay off two employees, reduce hours for two others and roll back operations, the release said. Hill said she had to cut her own time back to 20 hours a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grant was released in February, (and we added) on three additional communities,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe\u2019re right in the middle of the work. For Pagosa Springs, we\u2019re about 75% done with the transportation planning work. For Saguache we are roughly 50% done. So it really did impact and hurt those two communities when we received the stop work order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kids
Kids from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe ride their new bikes during the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency's Spoketober event meant to teach them how to ride bikes. The event is an example of 4CORE\u2019s outreach meant to help rural and underserved communities. (Courtesy of Jenny Hill)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

According to the nonprofit\u2019s website, 4CORE helped provide funding, guidance and community organization for clean energy initiatives, such as solar installation projects and an e-bike lending program for low-income and car-less residents. On Friday, for example, Hill was in Towaoc working to get kids from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe on e-bikes to help address their transportation needs.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the organization sought to help communities become more climate resilient through groundwater conservation projects and sustainable economic practices.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Hill said, is that community surveys about 4CORE\u2019s work in both Saguache and Pagosa Springs was positive, regardless of political affiliation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss of this funding will immediately curtail 4CORE\u2019s planned programs for mobility planning in four communities, and commercial and residential energy efficiency outreach,\u201d the release said.<\/p>\n

The reduction in the nonprofit\u2019s staffing has already halted the organizations efforts to gather information and to help communities identify transportation needs, plan for affordable transportation, enable homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient and provide education about sustainable business practices to boost economic resiliency.<\/p>\n

To Hill, the move to cut the funding is strictly based on ideology, she said. 4CORE\u2019s work was non-partisan and helped communities save money, increase efficiency and become more environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels strictly political,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThat\u2019s why in 2020 through 2024, we were receiving more grant funds and getting more awards, and kind of wrapping up the services we offered. And then this whole year has been a roller coaster of determining the strategy moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half-million dollar cut resulted in job loss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1906,28,1269,1426],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-energy-saving","tag-headlines","tag-nonprofits","tag-renewable-energy"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19948,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978\/revisions\/19948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15978"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}