Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist pushes back on climate change denial while announcing grant funding for community efforts aimed at meeting the state’s healthy climate goals during the MI Healthy Climate Conference in Detroit on April 22, 2025. | Kyle Davidson
Kicking off the third annual MI Healthy Climate conference, focused on advancing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2050, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist continued to call for climate action amid an uncertain federal landscape.
While climate change denial may be at its peak within American culture, those committed to climate action must also be at the peak of their strength, Gilchrist said.
“Republicans at the federal and the state level are attacking climate action. They are committing to rolling back investments that have been made, that have been committed, that have been promised to people and communities here in the state of Michigan, to the tune of putting $14 billion of investment at risk that will raise energy prices on Michiganders,” said Gilchrist, who is a Democratic candidate for governor in 2026.
However these threats emphasize the importance of climate efforts at the state and community level, Gilchrist said.
Pulling from his past as a basketball player, Gilchrist said that sometimes the best defense is a good offense, framing the fight against climate change as an opportunity for change, growth, innovation and leadership.
As Michigan leads the nation in clean energy job growth, and more clean energy adjacent businesses are growing in the state than ever before, Gilchrist pointed to these changes as an opportunity for Michigan to do more.
As part of that effort Gilchrist announced the MI Healthy Climate Challenge, offering several millions of dollars in grants to projects that will help the state meet its goal of carbon neutrality.
The program will include multiple competitions through 2026, with the first competition, Solar for Savings, offering $8.875 million in grants for residential and community solar pilot projects and upgrades to equipment and energy storage. The challenge is open and will accept entries through 5 p.m. on July 30, 2025. Applications are available at Michigan.gov/MHCChallenge.
Pilot programs supported by the competition are intended to lower energy costs, improve resiliency against power outages and create the groundwork for the MI Solar For All program, a $156 million federally-funded initiative to provide low-income communities and households access to solar energy.
According to a statement from the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy, which is sponsoring the conference, future competitions will focus on improving access to loans for environmental efforts, helping communities and partners leverage federal tax credits and unlocking large-scale financing for high-impact climate projects. Though eligibility will vary, the challenge aims to include a wide range of participants such as local governments, community lenders, schools, faith organizations, nonprofits and solar providers.
During last year’s MI Healthy Climate Conference, Gilchrist announced the Michigan Climate Justice Challenge, offering $11 million in grant and technical assistance to help Michigan communities in competing for federal funding. The state also announced a mobility challenge aimed at improving access to Michigan’s national parks through innovations in small-scale electric shuttles and automated driving systems, multimodal electric charging hubs and micro-mobility like scooters and e-bikes.
“All that is to say, we’ve laid a foundation… We’ve tested some things out,” Gilchrist said.
“Now that we know when something works a little bit, we have to scale it up quickly so it can work a lot in every group, in more markets in more communities, in more circumstances,” Gilchrist said, emphasizing the importance of inviting people from all of Michigan’s communities to participate in efforts to combat climate change and build up the state’s clean energy and mobility economy.
“We cannot get where we need to go if we don’t bring everybody along with us,” Gilchrist said, telling attendees that by building a better connected, more inspired group, the state can begin to realize the clean energy and climate future it deserves.