A project in rural Minnesota that is critical to improving access to reliable electricity for members of the White Earth Reservation is in jeopardy. And an organization that is helping the tribe with the project is now suddenly shouldering a $1.6 million risk that it never intended to. 

“It puts us and everyone else in these communities at risk,” Sandra Kwak, founder and CEO of climate justice developer 10Power, said of this sudden debt.

Kwak is working with the community organization 8th Fire Akiing Solar to dramatically reshape the tribe’s resiliency by expanding a solar array and introducing power storage. The $4 million project, known as the Pine Point Community Microgrid, will be located at a K-8 school which also serves as an elderly gathering center. 

The microgrid would more than cover 100% of the school’s electricity usage, which is critical for a low-income area that shoulders some of the highest energy burdens in the state. It would also offer a safe haven for community members during blackouts or natural disasters, and it would serve as a teaching tool for the school while integrating the native Ojibwe language into the school curriculum. 

That project includes a 40% investment tax credit that would be recouped through a direct payment authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law in 2022. A recent freeze in funding for federal grants, affecting communities and organizations across the country, has injected a sense of financial uncertainty for projects like Pine Point. 

“Right now our project is dependent on receiving 40% of the cost,” Kwak said, adding that the organization took out a $1.6 million loan it had planned to satisfy once it received the incentive payment. “Most of these tax credits have benefited rural communities and low-income communities. It’s so helpful for the communities that have been left behind.”

The village within the White Earth Reservation that would most benefit from the Pine Point project is home to fewer than 300 people. Gwe Gasco, a tribal member working for 8th Fire Akiing Solar, said the project would not only shore up energy resiliency and emergency preparedness for community members but it illustrated that the reservation was worthy of investment.

“This reservation is already in tough standing when it comes to quality of life. One of the reasons this project is important is it’s setting the precedent of how we can treat ourselves on the reservation and how we can be viewed by the outside world. It can bring hope to people, and jobs,” Gasco said. “It’s really hard to see something like this gain so much momentum and see things start to slip away. It feels like that.”

The economic impact of the project can certainly be measured, and Kwak said her organization is doing everything it can to make sure the project isn’t derailed. Prior to the funding freeze, the project acquired philanthropic investment, it procured inventory from Minnesota-based manufacturers, and it created local jobs. 

“We’ve already put our organization on the line. The project has started,” Kwak said, adding she is concerned about the ripple effect at scale. “All of these amazing organizations have hired people, have gotten a queue of projects, we’re trying to grow the economy, we’re trying to create jobs. You need a level of certainty to plan. People will lose jobs.”