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Despite declaring an 'energy emergency' and pushing an 'energy dominance' agenda, the Trump administration is working to roll back billions of dollars in funding for energy projects. Officials at the Department of Energy (DOE) are developing a 'hit list' of clean energy projects that were awarded federal funding during the Biden administration, including through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and annual appropriations made by Congress.
According to Heated, the 'hit list' of proposed cuts includes:
- $156 million for long-duration energy storage projects—in other words, improved batteries to address the intermittent nature of renewables;
- $900 million in grants made by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy;
- $700 million from DOE's Grid Deployment Office for projects including transmission projects across 16 states and offshore wind projects.
"Cutting funding that Congress has appropriated for specific programs and that federal agencies have already promised to recipients raises numerous legal concerns—from constitutional violations like separation of powers and faithfully executing laws to arbitrary and unreasoned decision-making," Jill Tauber, vice president of climate and energy litigation at Earthjustice, told Heated.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, ranking member on the Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, agreed: "An unelected billionaire who made his vast fortune off government contracts should not be able to unilaterally stop these programs," Kaptur said in a statement. "At a bare minimum, we demand the Department to follow the law as intended."
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The problem with creating lasting solutions for WSAs is not with the locally developed collaboratives or the balanced proposals that they’ve developed. The problem is with Washington, D.C., and their inability to pass legislation in a timely manner.”
