On May 7, 2025, Ithaca’s Common Council voted twelve‑to‑zero to “recommit in full” to the Ithaca Green New Deal, despite the uncertainty created by a recent federal climate‑funding freeze. The two‑hour hybrid meeting, held in City Hall and streamed online to nearly three hundred viewers, featured pointed questions about money, equity, and timeline, yet ended in unanimous support for keeping the City’s 2019 pledge to reach community‑wide carbon neutrality by 2030.
Council members began by acknowledging fresh fiscal headwinds. Since January, an executive order from President Trump has paused billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act and other infrastructure laws, including 2.7 billion dollars in pre‑allocated electric vehicle‑charging funds and roughly 350 million dollars for tribal and nonprofit climate projects. Ithaca staff estimated that at least 18 million dollars meant to underwrite building electrification rebates is now in limbo, forcing the City to stretch its own capital reserve. Ithaca Sustainability Director Rebecca Evans told the Council that her office has “re‑sequenced” work plans but warned that further delays could slow retrofits on as many as six hundred homes slated for heat pump installation this summer.
Yet supporters framed the recommitment as fiscally prudent. Ward 2 Alderperson Ducson Nguyen cited a Stanford-National Bureau of Economic Research study showing that every public research and climate‑mitigation dollar returns between thirty and one hundred percent in private‑sector growth. Ward 3 Alderperson and Tompkins County Legislature candidate Pierre Saint-Perez pointed to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicating that improved hurricane forecast accuracy has saved five billion dollars per major storm since 2007, arguing that local prevention avoids far costlier disaster recovery.
The vote also renewed Justice50, a policy that channels half of all Green New Deal and capital budget spending to historically disadvantaged households and neighborhoods in Ithaca. Since its adoption, Justice50 funding has paid for 112 heat‑pump water heaters in Southside apartments and covered ninety percent of the cost of rooftop solar arrays on three West End nonprofit buildings.
Still, the Council confronted sobering metrics. Buildings account for nearly forty percent of Ithaca’s 400 thousand‑metric‑ton annual greenhouse gas inventory; electrifying the planned six thousand structures is projected to cost at least 500 million dollars. Private lender BlocPower, once slated to manage 100 million dollars in low‑interest loans, quietly exited the Ithaca partnership in January, citing the federal pause and rising interest rates. Evans confirmed that staff are courting replacement financiers, noting that Boston‑based Alturus has kept its 100 million dollar pledge and New York Green Bank has expressed “strong interest” in a bridge facility.
Public comment ran forty-two speakers deep. Local climate science graduate student Maya Sanchez reminded officials that Ithaca’s average July temperature has risen 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1980, accelerating harmful algal blooms in Cayuga Lake. Longtime resident James Eldridge, however, urged a “fiscally realistic” timeline, noting that city electricity demand could double with full electrification. New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) is modeling grid upgrades that may cost ratepayers 42 million dollars over the next decade.
Council members answered with a three‑part funding strategy: pursue state Energy Research and Development Authority grants, expand property‑assessed clean energy financing, and lobby Congress to unfreeze infrastructure accounts. Legal staff highlighted a recent federal court ruling that the White House lacks “unfettered power” to block duly enacted grant programs, a decision advocates hope will restore stalled dollars within months.
By evening’s end, the Council directed staff to publish quarterly progress dashboards and to negotiate a new contract by August. Nguyen closed by framing the recommitment not as symbolism but as stewardship: “If federal support falters, our responsibility to act does not.” In September, contractors will bid on the first round of city‑owned building retrofits: a test of whether, in an era of fiscal uncertainty, Ithaca can turn bold resolutions into brick‑and‑mortar change.
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