Energy department cancels climate projects

The cancellation by the energy department of more than 300 financing prizes to projects in 16 states won by the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, during the presidential election, criticized efforts to reduce carbon emissions, air and water pollution and strengthen electrical references.

The elimination of nearly $ 8 billion in funding for more than 200 projects could lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs that would have been created by projects and undermine the Trump administration of the Trump administration to stimulate the competitiveness of American manufacturing, criticisms said.

The cuts were announced on Wednesday, the first day of the federal government’s closure. Earlier Wednesday, the Trump administration was $ 18 billion in funding from two massive infrastructure projects in New York – La Maison des deux Demme Democrats du Congress.

President Donald Trump and the Congress Republicans blamed the Democrats for the closure.

The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., referring Thursday, referring to the financing cancellations of the energy department, said: “Instead of doing politics with the closure, President Trump should work on bipartite solutions to reduce the costs of the Americans and create jobs.”

“This will be beyond targeting the blue states. It takes a demolition ball in the life of workers’ families: putting construction workers outside of a job and raising families for families for political purposes,” said Schumer.

While some of the cancellations of the department announced for the first time by the director of management and budget Russell Vought were new, others had already been announced in May by the Department.

Vought also deceived the funding freeze for a project to build a new rail tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York under the Hudson river, and to extend the metro of the second avenue in Manhattan, before the Ministry of Transport officially announced the move.

A list broadcast by the Capitol Hill Energy Department Thursday of all the cups he praised understood some, but not all, the May Cups. The May Cups that projects assigned in the States that Trump won in the 2024 elections were not included in the list, and none of the new cuts were in such states.

The prices canceled had been awarded by the offices of the Energy Department of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Grid deployment, Manufacturing and Energy Supply, Energy Research Agency and Fossil Energy.

“There would have been significant discounts of broadcasting of these projects,” said Ian Wells, principal defender of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a defense group. “Not only the greenhouse emissions, but things that lead to clean air and water,” said Wells.

Wells noted that another major financing subsidy, which was canceled in May, was assigned $ 500 million for the Lebec Net-Zero project in Lebec, California, which aimed to produce neutral carbon cement.

A similar and smaller project in Holyoke, Massachusetts, had granted 87 million dollars to sublime systems to build a manufacturing of low carbon cement, which would have created between 70 and 90 jobs, Wells said.

These projects “seemed to be in accordance with the priorities of the administration” to invigorate American manufacturing and to compete with competitors abroad, with the advantage of helping the environment, he said.

“It is potentially a” win-win “, and it’s potentially now thrown,” said Wells.

The Energy Department has not published the details of the 223 projects affected by the termination of funding.

But the Democrats of the Credit Committee of the Chamber compiled a list of affected projects and published it on Thursday afternoon.

“The end of these critical energy projects will increase energy prices, eliminate jobs and make the energy network less reliable,” said the group.

The terminated financing included $ 1.2 billion for a hydrogen hub in California as part of the so -called arches program – the alliance for renewable clean hydrogen energy systems.

“Today’s decision to withdraw federal funding for the arches ignores the critical advantages that our projects will offer – including 220,000 US jobs and stronger national security and resilience,” said Arches CEO, Angelina Galiteva, in a statement.

“The Arches ecosystem and the market will continue to progress in collaboration with heads of state and innovators in the private sector – based on our solid foundation to create a network of reliable domestic hydrogen focused on the future for California and beyond.”

According to Washington State officials, an additional $ 1.1 billion in grants for energy projects in the state of Washington, including the Pacific Northwest Hybrogen Hub, were canceled by the Department of Energy.

“This hub will create a clean hydrogen economy in our region,” Washington Bob Ferguson said in a press release at CNBC.

“It is scandalous that this administration uses a government closure to punish blue states like Washington,” said Ferguson. “We work with the prosecutor’s office to fight this illegal action.”

Chris Green, president of the Pacific Hydrogen Association, called for the cancellation of federal funds for the hub “a punch”.

“We are, of course, very disappointed with this,” Green told CNBC, noting that the project could have led to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of jobs.

He said that companies involved in the center “spent a lot on their own money”, with around 80% of the funds committed by private companies, federal funds providing the remaining 20% ​​of the costs.

“Can we still do this project now that we have lost 20% of our expected income?” Green asked. “It remains to be seen whether some of these projects can persevere.”

The Colorado Energy Office said that more than 30 subsidies totaling more than $ 500 million “are illegally ending in Colorado.

Two of these subsidies each provide $ 2.5 million to support the reduction in energy consumption and create cost savings thanks to the construction of energy codes and the construction of performance standards thanks to decarbonization, said the office.

“Other subsidies at the end of Colorado range from projects to reduce oil and gas methane and investments in the resilience of grids to support public service programs in low -income communities,” the office said.

“This targeting clearly motivated by the political motivation of subsidies by the administration will ensure that energy costs, will threaten the reliability of the network, increase pollution and create instability in our business world,” said the office.

In New Mexico, 10 projects have carried out more than $ 135 million in funding from the energy department.

Four of them were under the auspices of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, one with $ 42.7 million in the energy department to “develop a storage center on a commercial scale in the San Juan basin to verify that these sites can safely store 50 million tonnes of CO2”, according to the office of Senator Martin Heinrich, DN.M.

Heinrich, the classification democrat of the Senatorial Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Thursday: “A few minutes before the news of these canceled projects broke, I had just lunch with the secretary (of energy) (Chris) Wright and that he had neither courtesy nor taking care to mention that it happened, and that he understood ten projects in my state – families. “

“This tells you everything you need to know about how this administration works: in darkness and without respect for people injured by their decisions,” Heinrich said in a statement.

“The American people deserves a government that works for them, not the one who plays politics with their lives,” he said. This administration chooses to punish ordinary families just to settle the scores – and it is as dangerous as they are non -American. “”

The energy department, in a press release, said that cancellations followed “an in -depth and individualized financial review”, which “determined that these projects did not adequately make the country’s energy needs, were not economically viable and would not provide a positive return on the investment of taxpayers’ dollars”.

Energy Secretary Wright said that many prizes had been “precipitated in the last months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable commercial standard”.

“President Trump has promised to protect taxpayers from dollars and extend the American, reliable and secure energy offer,” said Write, adding that cancellations “give this commitment”.

The ministry said that of the 321 financial prices terminated, “26% were awarded between the day of the ballot and the day of the inauguration”, these prices alone evaluated at more than $ 3.1 billion.

But Wells, the NRDC lawyer, said that despite the statements of the energy department, “there was a lack of confusing transparency in this process of cancellation of funding”.

Wells contrasted this to verify by the Biden Administration of projects by the Biden administration before being approved. He noted that the ministry itself had not publicly published a list of canceled projects.

The Energy Department sent a document to CNBC detailing the projects affected on Friday, two days after Vought said that funding for them was canceled.

Wells stressed that several Democrats of Congress, including Heinrich of New Mexico, in early September, had raised concerns about the influence of people appointed politicians in the energy department to cancel the financing of projects in May.

“It is very unusual and contrary to the long -standing precedent of Doe,” wrote Heinrich and two other Democrats, the California Zoe Lofgren representative, and the representative of New Jersey, Frank Pallone, Jr., wrote in a letter to Wright. “It also contrasts strongly with the rigorous process based on the merit that the department followed in the selection of each of the awards.”

“These programs are not optional,” the legislators wrote. “These programs have been devoted to the law by bipartite majorities and they represent the will of the congress. You have no legal authority to sabotage them.”

Ken Lovett, the main communications on energy and the environment communications for the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, said that financing reductions “are not surprising given the full assault on the Trump administration against clean energy”.

“Whether it is to block the offshore wind, reduce federal incentives for electric vehicles and solar energy, or the reversal of clean air and clean water standards, the Trump administration attempt to make the progress that we have made puts back the well-being and safety of New Yorkers,” Livet said in a press release.

“We will not return.”

– CNBC Emily WilkinsAshlee Trujillo and Mc Wellons contributed to this story.