Energy Dept. Cuts $3.7 Billion for New Technologies to Lower Emissions

New York Times

4 days ago

The Energy Department announced on Friday that it was terminating $3.7 billion in Biden-era awards to companies trying to demonstrate technologies that might one day help tackle global warming.
Some of the 24 canceled awards would have gone to industrial companies that were aiming to reduce emissions from cement, iron, glass and chemicals production. Others had been awarded to fossil fuel and cement companies attempting to trap and bury carbon dioxide from their smokestacks before the gas escapes into the atmosphere and heats the planet.
Two of the terminated awards, worth $540 million in all, would have gone to Calpine, one of the nation's largest producers of electricity, which was trying to capture and store the carbon from two large natural gas power plants in Yuba City, Calif., and Baytown, Texas.
Also on the chopping block was a $331 million award to the oil giant Exxon Mobil, which had been planning to replace natural gas with lower-emissions hydrogen at a chemical facility in Baytown, Texas.
In announcing the cuts, the Energy Department said in a statement that the projects 'failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.'
'Today, we are acting in the best interest of the American people by canceling these 24 awards,' Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. He said that the previous administration had 'failed to conduct a thorough financial review' of the spending and suggested the process had been rushed, noting that 16 of the awards had been made between Election Day and President Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
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