Trump Administration Cancels TERAS Grant, Harming Tribal Sovereignty, Electrical Reliability, and Green Energy

On October 2nd, the Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced the Trump Administration would cancel approximately $7.5 billion in previously approved funding for green energy projects across the country. All of the targeted projects were located in states that had voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, according to a list released by House Democrats. A fact that Russ Vought seemed to highlight in his post on X, announcing the cancellation.

Here in Humboldt County, one of the cancelled projects was the Tribal Energy Resilience and Sovereignty Project (TERAS). The TERAS project was a regional initiative led by the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, and Yurok Tribe, in partnership with the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, the Schatz Energy Research Center, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. So what was the TERAS project and why was it being supported by these Tribal Nations and their partners, and what problem was it trying to solve?

The goal of the project was to strengthen power reliability in the Northeast corner of Humboldt County, where outages are frequent and infrastructure is fragile. Currently, the Hoopa and Yurok Tribes are served by an electric distribution circuit known as the Hoopa 1101 circuit, which connects them to the rest of Humboldt’s grid. The circuit is notoriously unreliable and experiences more frequent and longer-duration outages than 99% of the rest of PG&E’s service area. The major factors driving the Hoopa 1101 reliability performance are the remote mountainous service territory with increased vegetation-caused outage risks, overhead conductor exposure, and minimal ties to adjacent circuits for outage restoration support. For these communities, losing power isn’t just an inconvenience. It can shut down water systems, disrupt healthcare and education, spoil food, and cut off communications. For personal electricity needs, folks can purchase a backup generator, but that comes with a price tag that many cannot afford. 

The TERAS project would have helped to solve this problem by creating a series of nested microgrids along the circuit. A microgrid is a local electrical grid that can operate connected to the traditional grid or independently in "island" mode, usually by relying on local solar panels and batteries. Basically, if a tree fell on the line that would normally cause a complete outage, these microgrids would have allowed portions of the line to “island” and rely on local solar panels and batteries rather than power generated on the other side of a broken line. Schatz Energy Research Center estimated the project would have led to a 90% reduction in outage hours in the area. The project would also have been a cost saver for all rate payers as well because it would have increased reliability at roughly half the cost of traditional hardening techniques such as undergrounding. 

Another, more intangible goal of the project was to increase Tribal Energy Sovereignty. It’s no coincidence that a corner of California with such a large concentration of Tribal citizens is also a corner that is underserved in terms of electric reliability. Historic decisions about where to invest were driven by PG&E or the State and not the Tribal Nations themselves. This project was a step toward allowing the Yurok, Hoopa, and Blue Lake Rancheria to have more control over their energy systems through tribal construction, ownership, and operation of advanced microgrid systems. 

Designing a project like this and applying for a federal Department of Energy grant takes a lot of work. “We are deeply disappointed by this news, as the TERAS project represents years of technical design, multi-tiered partnership, and extensive regulatory and policy review,” said Linnea Jackson, General Manager of the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District. So, to have it ripped away, without warning, was quite the shock. According to a press release issued by Redwood Coast Energy Authority, the Trump Administration did not officially notify them of the change of status; they learned the news from reporting by journalists and the list released by the House Democrats. 

Despite the cancellation of the project, Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District General Manager Linnea Jackson told me she was still hopeful: “It’s not killing our initiative or drive to still figure out a solution.” Other TERAS partners have likewise confirmed their commitment to moving the project forward.