US green energy braces for federal funding cuts
The Trump administration has been particularly hostile to green energy.Amongst the President's actions since taking office in January include initiating the US's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and temporarily suspending renewable energy projects on federal lands (he has a particular disdain for wind power).Trump has also directed agencies to pause Green New Deal funds, which he regularly calls "Green New Scam" funds: grants and loans being made under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), enacted under Biden's presidency in 2021 and 2022 respectively.Those grants and loans, together with the clean energy tax credits that are also part of the IRA, have been funnelling billions of new federal and private dollars into developing clean energy. "It is tumultuous time," says Adie Tomer, of the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "We are doing the exact opposite of our developed world peers."Court battles are ongoing over the President's order to pause green funding, which might ultimately end up in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, agencies are conducting their own reviews and making their own decisions.
Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, which represents companies involved in carbon capture and storage, laments the lack of clarity from the administration.Members, she explains, have won project funding under the IIJA – including, for example, to build direct air capture facilities. But while projects generally have been able to access funds already awarded to earlier phases, it is unclear if they will be able to progress to additional phases where additional funds are supposed to be made available."It is causing uncertainty, which is really bad for project deployment," says Ms Stolark. "If you endanger the success of these first-of-a-kind projects it just takes the wind out of the sails of the whole [carbon management] industry long term."
Meanwhile, the fate of the IRA, which the Congress has the power to amend or repeal along with the IIJA, is being decided, in part, by the budget bill, which aims to permanently extend President Trump's first term tax cuts by making savings elsewhere.What exactly will remain of the Federal green energy agenda when both the House and Senate agree a compromise version remains to be seen.It seems likely the IRA's tax credits, which are generally scheduled to expire at the end of 2032, though some extend beyond that date, will take a heavy hit, even if the IRA dodges the bullet of outright repeal.Also marked for termination include the tax credits for consumers buying EVs and making their homes more efficient.Many others, such as those for producing clean electricity and manufacturing clean energy components like wind turbine parts, solar panels and batteries, would be phased out earlier or made harder and less worthwhile to secure.That many of the projects set to benefit from the tax credits are in Republican areas seems to have had little sway in the House, notes Ashur Nissan of policy advice firm Kaya Partners.But critics say that the Biden green energy initiatives are too expensive.The IRA's energy tax credits are "multiple times" larger than initial estimates, and expose American taxpayers to "potentially unlimited liability" noted a recent report from the libertarian Cato Institute advocating their full repeal.
Meanwhile, actual clean energy investment in the US including from both government and private sources (the far larger share) dropped 3.8% in the first quarter of 2025 to $67.3bn, a second quarterly decline, according to new figures released by the Clean Investment Monitor."Momentum is sagging a bit which is a little concerning," says Hannah Hess of the Rhodium Group research firm, which partners with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to produce it. She attributes the trend to a mix of high inflation, high interest rates, global supply chain issues and uncertainty in the policy environment created by the new administration.There was also, she observes, a record number of clean energy manufacturing projects cancelled in the first quarter of 2025 – six projects mostly in batteries and representing $6.9bn in investment– though it is difficult to say to what extent the new administration was a driver.More worrying to Ms Hess is the decline since the last quarter in announcements for some types of new projects, which she believes can be "more strongly" attributed to the policy situation, with companies lacking confidence there will be demand for the clean products their projects would produce.
Tariffs, which will increase factory construction costs if components need to be imported, are an extra factor that may negatively influence project decisions going forward, notes Anthony DeOrsey of the Cleantech Group research and consulting firm.Investment aside, companies are also making shifts in how they market their products.The homepage of LanzaJet – which produces Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from ethanol – used to emphasise how scaling SAF could "meet the urgent moment of climate change". It now focusses on its potential to "harness the energy of locally produced feedstocks".SAF has never been about just one thing, notes CEO Jimmy Samartzis. Tailoring messaging to be "relevant to the stakeholders we are engaging with" makes sense.The company is current waiting on a $3m grant it was awarded by the Federal Aviation Authority last August as part of a nearly $300m program designed to help aviation transition to SAF and which was funded under the IRA."It is approved funding, but it is stuck at this point," says Mr Samartzis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump threatens Colorado with ‘harsh measures' unless far-right election conspiracy theorist released from prison
Donald Trump is demanding the release of a prominent far-right conspiracy theorist and former state elections official who is serving a nine-year jail sentence after she was found guilty of crimes connected to a nationwide scheme to overturn election results in states Trump lost in 2020. He threatened 'harsh measures' against the state of Colorado if officials refuse his command. 'FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians, including the big Mail-In Ballot supporting the governor of the State,' Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. 'Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election,' he added. 'She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!' Peters is among the only officials who have been convicted of crimes stemming from far-right plots to illegally reverse Trump's loss to Joe Biden in 2020, using positions of power to amplify bogus claims of fraud and launch spurious investigations into voting machines and software. Because she was tried in state court, Trump cannot order her release or issue a pardon. In May, he ordered the Department of Justice 'to take all necessary action' to get her out of jail. Peters, a former Mesa County clerk, was accused of breaching the county's elections systems during a 2021 security update to prove her unfounded fraud claims. She was accused of helping a man gain access to secure areas of her office using someone else's security badge to covertly copy a Dominion Voting Systems hard drive — the contents of which were shared with pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell. She later unsuccessfully ran for Colorado secretary of state in 2022, coming in second in a Republican primary election. Last year, she was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one misdemeanor count of official misconduct, one misdemeanor count of violation of duty in elections, and one misdemeanor count of failure to comply with the secretary of state. Peters has continued to promote baseless claims of election fraud and supports Trump's ongoing false narrative that the 2020 election was 'rigged' and 'stolen' from him. After she pleaded for leniency during her sentencing hearing last year, the judge presiding over her case called her a 'charlatan' who 'betrayed' her oath to public service. 'You're no hero, you abused your position, and you're a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that's been proven to be a snake oil time and time again,' Judge Matthew Barrett said at the time. 'I'm convinced you'd do it all over again if you could,' he added. 'You are a privileged person. You are as privileged as they come. You used that for power and fame.' Colorado's Democratic Attorney General Jena Griswold called Trump's commands an 'embarrassment.' 'Donald Trump and Tina Peters are election-denying criminals who put their need for power ahead of the American people,' she wrote. 'Trump's feeble attempts to put pressure on the justice system to re-write history is an embarrassment. … While he keeps digging himself lower and lower to free a criminal convicted by a jury of her peers, I will continue to uphold the law and our free and fair elections.' Trump escalated his specious crusade against election administration this week with a threat to 'end' mail-in voting before 2026 midterm elections, with the fate of the balance of power in Congress at stake. The president — whose false and inflated claims about early voting span more than a decade — called to 'lead a movement' to 'get rid of' mail-in voting and the use of voting machines that process ballots, which would radically change how voters participate in elections and could disenfranchise tens of thousands of people. 'We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they're corrupt,' Trump said in the Oval Office this week. Trump cannot legally end state and local rules for election administration, though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested this week that the president is pressing Republicans in Congress to change federal law.
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ant smuggling into the US is out of control since Trump's cuts – and it could have dire impacts on the country
The smuggling of ants and other insects in the U.S. could be on the rise due to recent cuts to the USDA under the Trump administration, a new report says. The Department of Government Efficiency, the agency once led by billionaire Elon Musk, issued widespread layoffs and buyouts to federal employees this spring. This impacted several members of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which helps restrict the smuggling of invertebrates like ants, Wired reports. While some of those staff were later rehired, other positions have remained vacant, according to the outlet. These cuts have alarmed experts, and sources familiar with the industry say ant smugglers have been emboldened by the recent cuts under the Trump administration, according to Wired. 'It's getting out of hand,' one ant seller said. 'They realize the U.S. market is a gold mine.' Some members of the ant-selling community also told Wired that the process to sell ants legally has become harder, which in turn is contributing to an uptick in illegal sales. 'Smuggling ants hasn't gotten easier from the cuts to federal services, trading ants across state borders legally has gotten harder,' one former black market ant seller told Wired. This could pose a problem because invasive ants can have devastating impacts on the environment. In Florida, millions of tawny crazy ants — an invasive species from South America — are forming super colonies and driving out local wildlife, the Herald-Tribune reports. The ants are also invading residents' homes and damaging electrical equipment. Areas of the southeast U.S. also saw an increase in invasive Asian needle ants this summer. The venomous species has been found in the U.S. for 90 years, but its population exploded recently. A single sting can send someone to the hospital with life-threatening symptoms. Some experts say they're concerned about cuts to infrastructure that detects and prevents invasive species. 'There's been a lot of cutting of the inspectors as part of the quote-unquote 'efficiency' moves from the government recently,' Chris Stelzig, executive director of the Entomological Society of America, told Wired. 'A reduced infrastructure to detect invasive species can be problematic.' However, this isn't an entirely new problem. Retired USDA entomologist Carlos Blanco told Wired there were enforcement problems even before the DOGE cuts, too. Armando Rosario-Lebrón, the former co-chair of the Federal Interagency Committee on Invasive Terrestrial Animals and Pathogens, told Wired that the 'illegal market rapidly has become much more aggressive because of the lack of enforcement.' 'The invasiveness potential is off the charts,' he added. 'It's just ridiculous.' USDA spokesperson Heather Curlett told Wired that the agency has the 'same number of entomology staff within the pest permitting unit as we did before' and that the agency's enforcement of federal plant pest regulations 'has not changed or diminished.' 'We work to address all instances of noncompliance both from permit holders who fail to follow the terms and conditions of their permits and those who move plant pests without obtaining the proper permits,' Curlett added.
Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
EU pushes for reduced US autos tariff from August 1 as joint text limits exemptions
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The European Union will work to ensure lower U.S. tariffs on its car exports are applied retroactively to August 1, the bloc's trade chief said on Thursday, as the transatlantic partners set out details of a framework trade deal struck in July. In a 3-1/2-page joint statement, the two sides spelled out that 15% U.S. tariffs would apply to most EU imports and listed the commitments made, including the EU's pledge to eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and to give preferential market access for a wide range of U.S. seafood and agricultural goods. Washington will take steps to reduce the current 27.5% U.S. tariffs on cars and car parts, a huge burden for European carmakers, once Brussels introduces the legislation needed to enact promised tariff cuts on U.S. goods, it said. The statement said U.S. tariff relief on autos and auto parts would kick in on the first day of the month in which the EU introduced the legislation. EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said it was the European Commission's "firm intention" to make proposals by the end of this month, meaning the U.S. car tariff reduction would apply from August 1. A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said European carmakers could see relief from the current U.S. tariffs within "hopefully weeks." "As soon as they're able to introduce that legislation - and I don't mean pass it and fully implement it, but really introduce it - then we will be in a position to provide that relief. And I will say that both sides are very interested in moving quickly," they said. U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal on July 27 at Trump's luxury golf course in Turnberry, Scotland after months of negotiations. The two leaders met again this week as part of negotiations aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine, with both lauding their trade framework deal as an historic accomplishment. The joint statement said the deal could be expanded over time to cover additional areas and further improve market access. The joint statement was "a play to hold each other accountable" and ensure that both sides carried out the pledges announced last month, the U.S. official said. Ryan Majerus, a former U.S. Commerce Department official now with the King and Spalding law firm, said the statement "could serve as a conceptual model for what we will eventually see with Japan and South Korea." The two major U.S. trading partners negotiated similar reductions in Trump's automotive tariffs but are also waiting for them to be implemented. The EU and U.S. said they intended to accept and provide mutual recognition to each others' automotive safety and other standards, but industry officials said this language was more vague than initially announced. The joint statement noted that the U.S. agreed to apply only pre-existing Most Favored Nation tariffs of below 15% from September 1 on EU aircraft and parts, generic pharmaceuticals and ingredients, chemical precursors and unavailable natural resources, including cork. This exemption did not apply to wine or spirits, a key EU demand, but the two sides agreed to consider other sectors and products for inclusions. "So these doors are not closed forever," Sefcovic said, while acknowledging that securing an exemption for alcoholic drinks would not be easy. SpiritsEUROPE trade group Director General Herve Dumesny urged "both sides to remain at the negotiating table and deliver a swift, full return to zero-for-zero" tariffs on spirits. The U.S.-EU statement reiterated the EU's intention to procure $750 billion in American liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear energy products, plus an additional $40 billion worth of U.S.-made artificial intelligence chips. It also repeated the intention for EU companies to invest an additional $600 billion across U.S. strategic sectors through 2028. Both sides committed to address "unjustified digital trade barriers," the statement said, and the EU agreed not to adopt network usage fees. They also agreed to negotiate rules of origin to ensure that the agreement's benefits accrued to both trading partners. The statement also left unchanged the 50% U.S. national security tariff on EU-produced steel, aluminum and goods made with the metals, which were expanded this week to hundreds of additional products. "There will be no exemptions, no exclusions for steel and aluminum tariffs," Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters at the White House, due to what he said were past exclusion abuses. But the joint statement left the door open to a future tariff rate quota for the EU as the two sides discuss "ring-fencing" their domestic markets from overcapacity, a reference to Chinese production. Navarro called the Trump administration's agreement with the EU a "magnificent achievement" for both sides of the Atlantic that U.S. courts should not criticize. A federal appeals court is expected to rule any day on a legal challenge that could strike down a significant portion of Trump's tariffs, those invoked under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
