Surprise! Trump DOE Retains 80% Biden Era Energy Funding Awards
The Trump Administration’s Department of Energy has reversed many of the clean energy moves from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure Acts, canceling multiple billions of dollars in DOE loan guarantees for carbon capture and renewables.
And yet the Trump DOE is now opting to keep 80% of those previously announced Biden Awards, after a lengthy and high-level review, according to multiple recent news reports.
The reputed list of previously awarded projects surviving the cut numbers about 1,900, approved with some modifications. Despite the Trump Administration’s demonstrated preference in favor of baseload resources such as natural gas and nuclear, the reinstated awards include projects in grid resiliency, renewable energy and critical minerals, according to reports.
Trump’s DOE looked at more than 2,200 funding awards over several months. Although renewable energy and other decarbonization technologies survived the ultimate cut, Energy Secretary Chris Wright noted the administration’s preferred focus on baseload power and nuclear expansion, including small modular reactors.
“Two of our early loans from the Energy Dominance Finance program are for nuclear plant restarts, both the Palisades plant in Michigan and the formerly Three Mile Island, which will be rechristened the Crane Clean Energy Center,” Secretary Wright told the House Energy & Commerce Committee. “Those are EDF loans from the Department of Energy in partnership with solid corporate partners that are leading the effort and funding with equity. We're just their debt partners coming along with them.
“EDF loans will almost certainly be part of the first five or ten new reactors that are built in this country,” Secretary Wright added. “Commercial lenders will be right there along with us, and after we get that ball rolling again, I think the commercial capital markets will fill that role nicely.”
Among the Biden-Era decarbonization energy awards kept alive by the current DOE include dozens of projects in blue-leaning states such as Hawaii, Minnesota, Maryland, New Mexico, Vermont, Maine, Oregon and Colorado, among others. These involve private developments, utility and public cooperative projects.
President Trump has issued several executive orders to promote expansion of baseload power to meet future artificial intelligence and data center demand, as well as growth in domestic manufacturing and industrial automation. He also has tried to end offshore wind projects which are already under construction and near completion, but federal judges thwarted those presidential efforts with injunctions.
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About the Author
EnergyTech Staff
Rod Walton is head of content for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.
Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
He can be reached at [email protected].
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.