Clouds over Solar; Hyundai's Water

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025

Good morning! We're focused today on the on-again, off-again world of federal funding for environmental issues, with local solar and public transit projects taking center stage. We're also taking note of how Hyundai boasts about its water savings in other parts of the world but is less forthcoming about water use in Coastal Georgia.

Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org

NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

Workers with Be Smart Home Solutions install solar panels in Garden City as part of the Georgia BRIGHT pilot program. Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current

Solar for All, immediately threatened

Georgia BRIGHT on Monday launched a program offering free rooftop solar arrays to Georgia households earning 80% of their area's median income. It aims to provide no-cost solar leases to 900 Georgia households. Nearly 500 households signed up within 24 hours of the launch. But on Tuesday, it looked like the program's $156 million in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants was suddenly in jeopardy. "The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting termination letters to the 60 nonprofit groups and state agencies that received the grants under the 'Solar for All' program, with the goal of sending the letters by the end of this week," The New York Times reported.

The Georgia BRIGHT program's dual goals are to lower climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions and help people address rising power bills. Recipients are expected to save about 50%-70% on their electricity bills. Some who depend on electricity for medical equipment will receive a battery to provide emergency back-up power. If the program continues as planned, income-qualified participants — for those living in the Savannah area, that's about $79,700 for a family of four — will be entered into a September drawing for the first 400 spots in the program, as WABE/Grist's Emily Jones reports.

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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

The water tower at the Hyundai Metaplant holds 2 million gallons. Credit: HMGMA

Hyundai water

Hyundai's annual corporate sustainability report, issued in late June, highlights the automaker's water-saving efforts worldwide with special emphasis on progress in some water-scarce areas such as Chennai, India. But it's silent on the water usage at the new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Ellabell, where its water needs have been a point of contention, as The Current's Mary Landers reports. For the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, Hyundai's efforts elsewhere point to what the company can do in Coastal Georgia.

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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

Chatham Area Transit has six fully electric buses Credit: Chatham Area Transit

Chatham Area Transit pauses EV purchases

Chatham Area Transit, the largest public transit system in Coastal Georgia, is pivoting away from electric buses and toward "clean diesel" because of delays in EV deliveries and limits on charging infrastructure, Eric Curl reports in Savannah Agenda.

CAT will use $13.4 million in Low or No Emissions (Lo-No) grant funding to purchase 18 diesel powered buses rather than the previously planned 10 electric buses and six chargers. It expects to resume EV purchases in 2028.

Federal guidelines were recently amended to allow grantees to purchase diesel-powered vehicles. But Stan Cross, Electric Transportation Director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, told The Current there's no such thing as "clean diesel."

"All diesel is dirty, and burning it harms human health and our climate," he said. "So, unfortunately, Savannah will be stuck breathing more dirty diesel."

Cross doesn't blame CAT, though.

"I blame the Trump Administration for going back on the government's word by breaking funding promises to the American EV industry and its workers, state and local governments, and consumers," he said.

Also noted

• A federal appeals court shut down an environmental challenge to development of a wetland on St. Simons Island, ruling the property falls short of protection under a test recently created by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

• The National Weather Service has received permission to hire 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians just months after being hit hard by Department of Government Efficiency-related cuts and early retirement incentives, CNN reports.

• The last of three meetings to gather public input on proposed changes to Georgia's "Bird Island Rule" is set for 6 p.m. today at the group shelter at Skidaway Island State Park, 52 Diamond Causeway in Savannah. Revisions to the rule will be aimed at providing greater protections for seabirds and shorebirds and will include new islands formed since the rule was passed in 1998. Visit georgiawildlife.com/regulations/proposed for related documents and more details.