The Department of Energy has cancelled 24 clean energy demonstration projects worth nearly $3.7 billion, citing concerns over financial viability, insufficient return on taxpayer investment, and a failure to meet the energy needs of Americans. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the decision, describing the awards as hastily approved in the final days of the Biden administration and misaligned with the Trump administration’s energy and economic priorities. The cancellations come after an internal review ordered earlier this month under a new departmental policy aimed at increasing accountability and rooting out waste in federally funded energy programs. According to a department list reviewed by The Epoch Times, the terminated awards include high-dollar carbon capture and industrial decarbonization projects involving firms such as ExxonMobil, Calpine, Heidelberg Materials, and Kraft Heinz. Sixteen of the 24 awards were signed between Election Day 2024 and Inauguration Day 2025. The rescinded projects span a range of industries and regions, including glass manufacturing facilities in Ohio, carbon capture efforts in Texas and California, and decarbonization initiatives at food production sites nationwide. The largest award canceled was a $500 million grant to Heidelberg Materials for a carbon capture project in Louisiana.
U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, the green-loan machine
Ever heard of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). Well, it was created to help advance clean-energy infrastructure and technologies that allegedly had the potential to be adequate energy resources but struggled to secure private investment. With discussions underway about staffing and budget changes, defenders of the climate-centric status quo in energy policy rushed to preserve it, claiming LPO is essential for energy dominance and manufacturing growth. In reality, LPO is a taxpayer-backed ATM for unreliable energy technologies and infrastructure that can’t compete without federal funding.
Joe Biden squeezed in $25 billion in LPO loans for various green energy projects
Before the end of his presidency, Joe Biden squeezed in $25 billion in LPO loans for various green energy projects, attempting to undercut President Donald Trump’s energy plans. Advocates will claim these loans and others supported critical infrastructure such as battery storage, transmission upgrades, and flexible demand response. However, these investments primarily offset the deficiencies of intermittent energy sources like wind and solar. Rather than strengthening a reliable grid, such investments introduce arbitrary costs to accommodate unreliable generation. While making notable and worthwhile investments in reliable nuclear technology, LPO has overwhelmingly become a central gear in the “green new scam” machinery: a system built on subsidies and climate ideology, not competition or energy realism. The problem isn’t just taxpayer waste. It also distorts energy markets and destroys grid reliability.
Time to end Washington’s green-loan machine?
LPO investments should prioritize infrastructure that meets real-world demand regardless of the weather or the time of day. They should also target infrastructure projects that enhance grid security and technologies that attract private investment and minimize taxpayer risk. Ultimately, the program must stop serving as a revolving door for green cronyism. If fully repealing LPO is off the table, policymakers must refocus the program on energy development that keeps the lights on and serves the needs of modern life. The so-called clean energy transition financed through LPO is neither clean nor affordable. It is also not focused on delivering reliable power to lead us into the future. Its underlying net-zero premise fosters degrowth and deindustrialization and locks out innovation. President Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have rightly embraced energy realism and rejected “all-of-the-above” energy schemes. Policymakers must free the U.S. Department of Energy from Joe Biden’s policies and align the agency with the Trump administration’s goals for reliable, affordable, and secure energy. It’s time to end Washington’s green-loan machine
Towns And States Don’t Want Green Energy
Trump Administration actions to scale back renewable energy capture headlines, but citizens are also pushing back. Efforts to deploy wind and solar systems face a rising tide of opposition in towns, counties, and states. Mandates for electric vehicles and electric home appliances are being challenged. The combination of rising local opposition and Trump funding cuts threatens to end the transition to green energy. The green energy revolution in the United States has run almost unopposed for the last two decades. Driven by the fear of human-caused global warming, federal regulators enacted an expanding array of incentives for renewables in the form of mandates, tax credits, loans, and subsidies. States added incentives to push for the adoption of wind, solar, electric vehicles, heat pumps, green hydrogen, and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture systems. Twenty-three states have laws or executive orders requiring Net Zero electricity by 2050. Power companies have been forced to comply with state mandates. Since 2000, wind and solar have grown from near zero to about 16% of US power generation in 2024, wind (10.5%) and solar (5.1%).
Trump: “We are destroying our country with this green stuff”
Twenty-two states have electric vehicle (EV) mandates, requiring all sales of new cars to be EVs by a future date, such as 2035. Tightening CO2 emission standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) force manufacturers to sell an increasing share of EVs. Plug-in EV sales grew from zero two decades ago to 8% last year. Climate policy advocates want homeowners to switch from natural gas and propane appliances to heat pumps and other electric appliances. In 2019, Berkeley, California became the first city to prohibit natural gas in new residential construction. Cities and counties in seven states now ban gas in new construction, including a statewide ban in New York. The wave of renewable energy programs promoted and subsidized included electric vehicle charging stations, CO2 pipelines, and green hydrogen production facilities. But it’s becoming clear that many towns, counties, and states no longer support the green energy movement. A rising tide of opposition threatens the deployment of renewables.
Towns And States Don’t Want Green Energy
Last month, the State House of Arizona passed legislation that would prohibit construction of wind systems on more than 90% of state land. The legislation would force new wind projects to be at least 12 miles from any residential property. The bill is being considered in the Arizona Senate. Oklahoma is the third largest generator of electricity from wind in the US. But attendees at recent rallies at the state capitol call for bans on new wind and solar projects. Local residents voice economic, environmental, and health concerns about renewable systems. The opposition to wind and solar has been growing for more than a decade and recently accelerating. In 2009, North Carolina banned new wind projects in 23 counties. Kentucky enacted an effective statewide ban on new wind construction in 2014. Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, and Vermont have established bans which are effectively statewide.
A 2023 study by USA Today found that the number of counties in the US with wind turbine restrictions or bans rose from two in 2008 to 411 in 2023. The number of blocking counties rose to over 500 in 2024 with Florida’s ban on wind systems offshore and within one mile of the coast. About 16% of US counties now ban or restrict wind systems. More than 100 counties restrict the deployment of solar systems. The number of counties that ban wind or solar is rising faster than counties which are deploying wind or solar for the first time. Journalist Robert Bryce has developed a Renewable Rejection Database. The database shows a cumulative total of 800 of wind and solar project rejections in the US since 2015. It shows a rising trend in rejections, including an especially large jump in solar rejections in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Rising opposition to wind and solar projects
There are many reasons for rising opposition to wind and solar projects. Towns are concerned with the aesthetic impact of 600-foot-high turbine towers and acres of solar panels, the loss of farmland to sprawling wind and solar systems, low-frequency noise from wind turbines, and the impact on nearby property values. Retiring systems generate vast quantities of turbine blade and solar panel waste that fill up local landfills or must be shipped to landfills in other states. Wind and solar require more than 100 times the land compared to coal, gas, or nuclear power generators for the same average electricity output. While traditional power plants are usually located near cities, utility-scale wind and solar systems are spread over wide areas, often on ridge lines and located far from population centers. Therefore, renewables require long transmission lines and two or three times the transmission towers compared to conventional power plants. Residents often oppose the construction of new transmission as well.
Some states have decided to overrule local opposition to wind and solar. A 2023 Illinois state law overruled restrictions or bans on wind and solar established by more than half of state counties. A 2023 Michigan state law also overruled local opposition from more than 20 counties. Local opposition can be bypassed in seven other states. In 2024, electric vehicle sales grew only 7% in the US. California and ten other states currently mandate that 35% of new car sales must be EVs in the 2026 model year. With slowing consumer adoption of EVs, these goals are impossible for all states except California. At the end of 2024, Virginia cancelled their EV mandate. Look for other states to cancel as well. As we mentioned, cities and counties in seven states have banned gas appliances in new construction, but in the last five years, 24 states enacted regulations prohibiting city and county bans on gas appliances. Most states want citizens and businesses to be able to choose the home energy that they prefer.
The Trump Administration’s rollbacks on green energy
Utilities are rethinking plans for renewable electricity. The artificial intelligence revolution may require Texas, Virginia, and other states to double power generating capacity within the next decade. Wind and solar systems can’t meet this demand. Nuclear plants are being restarted, coal plant closings are being postponed, and more than 200 gas-fired power plants are in planning or under construction. Carbon dioxide capture and green hydrogen projects are also being challenged. South Dakota just signed a law prohibiting the use of eminent domain to seize land for CO2 pipelines. CO2 capture projects in Louisiana face severe local opposition. And regional green hydrogen hubs are sure to be opposed. With Trump funding cuts and escalating local opposition to renewables, 2025 may be the beginning of the end of the green energy transition in the United States.
Written By Tatenda Belle Panashe
