Latest news with #MichaelTimberlake
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Clean Energy Investments Worth $14 Billion Have Already Been Pulled In 2025—'Returning Us To A Country Powered By Coal And Gas Guzzlers'
Billions in clean energy projects are getting scrapped this year as political decisions in Washington make the future of renewable power more uncertain than ever. According to an analysis by a nonpartisan business group, E2, more than $14 billion worth of U.S. clean energy investments have been canceled or delayed in just the first few months of 2025. The main reason is fear. Specifically, there is concern that Congress may soon eliminate the clean energy tax credits enacted in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The House has already approved a bill that would do just that, and companies are responding by halting projects. Don't Miss: Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:."Businesses are now counting on Congress to come to its senses and stop this costly attack on an industry that is essential to meeting America's growing energy demand," E2 Communications Director, Michael Timberlake, said in the report. Just in April, companies cancelled or delayed $4.5 billion in clean energy and electric vehicle-related investments, according to the report. Projects getting the axe include a $1.2 billion battery plant in Arizona, a major EV factory shutdown in Michigan, and a paused hydrogen fuel cell project in South Carolina. Many of these losses are happening in Republican-led districts—areas that have so far gained the most from clean energy expansions. E2 estimates that more than $12 billion in canceled projects and over 13,000 lost jobs are in red districts. Trending: Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. "The House's plan, coupled with the administration's focus on stomping out clean energy and returning us to a country powered by coal and gas guzzlers, is causing businesses to cancel plans, delay their plans, and take their money and jobs to other countries instead," E2's Executive Director Bob Keefe told the Associated Press. E2 estimates that since the Inflation Reduction Act passed, companies have announced nearly 400 major clean energy projects across 42 states and Puerto Rico, worth an estimated $132 billion. But 2025 is now shaping up to be a turning point, and not in a good way. Battery and EV projects have been hit the hardest. Battery storage alone accounts for over $10 billion in canceled plans. EV manufacturers have seen around 10,000 jobs disappear alongside more than $6 billion in lost all the news is negative. A handful of companies are still making bets on U.S. clean energy. April brought $486 million in new project announcements, including a $400 million solar wafer factory in Michigan by Corning (NYSE:GLW), which could create 400 jobs, and a $9.3 million investment by a Canadian solar firm in North Carolina. Even so, the scale of cancellations is far outpacing new activity. Timberlake said the entire industry is holding its breath. "If the tax plan passed by the House becomes law, expect to see construction and investments stopping in states across the country as more projects and jobs are cancelled. Businesses are now counting on Congress to come to its senses and stop this costly attack on an industry that is essential to meeting America's growing energy demand," he told the AP. Read Next:Can you guess how many retire with a $5,000,000 nest egg? .Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? CORNING (GLW): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Clean Energy Investments Worth $14 Billion Have Already Been Pulled In 2025—'Returning Us To A Country Powered By Coal And Gas Guzzlers' originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Tailwind To Turbulence: Why $8 Billion In Climate Projects Just Vanished
Here's a question climate policy watchers didn't expect to be asking in early 2025: What happens when the tailwind of America's Inflation Reduction Act becomes a headwind? The answer, at least in part, is $8 billion in canceled, downsized, or shuttered climate tech projects in just the first three months of this year. That's not a typo. In one quarter, the United States saw 16 major clean energy and manufacturing initiatives collapse, according to a new report from E2, a nonpartisan environmental policy group. To put that in perspective: it nearly matches the total number of cancellations in the 17 months following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022. This isn't just a string of unfortunate headlines. It's a signal—flashing red—that the market is cooling, investors are hesitating, and federal policy is wobbling just as the U.S. was starting to cement its clean energy manufacturing renaissance. Let's start with the policy problem. The IRA was the most ambitious climate investment in U.S. history, promising hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up everything from power grids to passenger vehicles to removing CO2 from the air. It did something crucial: it offered certainty. Companies could plan with confidence, knowing that tax credits, grants, and loan guarantees were coming. But that certainty is gone. In recent months, the White House has begun to revise and, in some cases, claw back previously announced incentives. Simultaneously, new tariffs on imports have been imposed, including critical components from China that dominate the supply chain for batteries, solar panels, and other clean energy infrastructure. 'If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we'll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.' says Michael Timberlake, communications director at E2. Uncertainty is kryptonite for capital-intensive industries. It doesn't matter if the money's promised—if companies suspect that promises might be pulled, they won't break ground. E2's report focuses only on large-scale projects. That means the real toll is likely higher. Smaller startups and mid-sized projects—already more vulnerable to shifting policy—aren't tracked as closely, and many may be quietly stalling or dying off entirely. For example, it does not include the hundreds of millions of dollars expected to be cut from the Department of Energy's direct air capture (DAC) hubs program. Consider the case of Aspen Aerogels, which had secured a $670 million loan commitment from the Department of Energy last fall to build a factory in Georgia. That plant was supposed to manufacture advanced materials to make EV batteries safer—precisely the kind of domestic innovation the IRA was designed to supercharge. But the company pulled the plug in February. Instead, it's doubling down on existing facilities and exploring expansion in China and Mexico. The broader context is telling: companies are hedging, looking abroad, recalibrating. While the U.S. climate tech sector wavers under policy reversals and market hesitation, other nations are beginning to see an opening—and Canada, in particular, is stepping confidently into the vacuum. In a surprise but decisive turn, Canada's recent federal election brought the Liberals back into power with a renewed climate mandate. Prime Minister Mark Carney—a former central banker with global economic clout and deep climate finance credentials—has signaled that Canada won't just play defense on climate. It wants to lead. Central to Carney's platform was a bold proposition: to make Canada a global hub for carbon removal and sequestration. Their commitments weren't vague gestures or lofty aspirations—they were grounded in policy mechanisms and timelines. The full value of Canada's Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Investment Tax Credit (CCUS ITC) will be extended to 2035. The government has pledged to accelerate offset protocol development, support a broad suite of removal technologies, and establish national carbon removal targets for 2035 and 2040. In other words, where the U.S. is hesitating, Canada is placing long bets. This could be more than just good climate policy—it could be good economics. Canada has vast geological storage potential, strong academic institutions, a resource-sector-savvy workforce, and now, a political framework that is signaling continuity and clarity. That's exactly the combination global investors and climate tech entrepreneurs are looking for. For climate tech, talent and capital are fluid. If the U.S. creates headwinds, they will go elsewhere. And with Carney at the helm, Canada is sending a clear message: we're open for business—and we're in it for the long haul. The irony, of course, is that this moment of American uncertainty comes just when momentum was starting to build. But history has shown again and again: industrial leadership is not about who moves first—it's about who stays the course.
Forbes
21-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump's Policy Pivot Kills $8 Billion Of Clean Energy Plans
Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox. Getty Images President Trump has played up his plans to boost U.S. energy production, though so far his priority is doing that with fossil fuels instead of renewable power. And his efforts to eliminate federal subsidies for clean power created by the Inflation Reduction Act and other policies enacted during the Biden Administration are quickly having an impact on that industry. Since January, investments totalling $7.9 billion for 16 large-scale factories and other projects have been cancelled, closed or downsized in the first quarter of 2025, according to a study by E2, a nonpartisan interest group that promotes policies that are environmentally and economically beneficial. The study cites increasing market uncertainty and the potential that Congress will repeal tax credits and other incentives that boosted renewable energy. Scrubbing those investment plans will eliminate 7,800 new clean energy-related jobs that would have been added, according to the analysis. The pace of cancellations jumped up in February and March, ending projects including a $200 million hydrogen fuel cell factory Bosch planned to open in South Carolina and a $2.5 billion Freyr Battery plant in Georgia. The industry isn't only seeing cancellations, though– more than $1.6 billion was invested in new solar, EV and grid and transmission equipment factories, E2 said. 'Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll,' E2 spokesman Michael Timberlake said. 'If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we'll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.' Anadolu via Getty Images California, Tesla's biggest U.S. market since it began delivering electric vehicles in 2008, soured on the brand in the first quarter, with sales there dropping 15% amid stiffer competition and as protests at the company's stores statewide amped up over CEO Elon Musk's unpopular government-slashing DOGE efforts. The Austin-based company that has been a top beneficiary of the Golden State's environmentally conscious consumers and regulations sold 42,322 vehicles there this year through March, down from 49,875 in the same period last year, according to data released by the California New Car Dealers Association on Wednesday. The drop in volume cut its market share to 49.3% in the period, down from 55.5% a year ago. It was also the first time it's been below 50% of overall EV sales in the state. Tesla's fall in California, like its overall U.S. sales in the quarter, went against a broader growth trend for battery-powered cars. Total EV sales in the state rose 7.3% to 96,416, according to the report. Big gainers included GM, which saw a 62% jump for Chevrolet-brand EVs, Hyundai and Honda, whose new Prologue was the third-best seller behind Tesla's Model Y and 3. Last week, Cox Automotive said Tesla's sales fell 8.6% nationwide even as U.S. sales jumped 11.4% in the quarter. Globally, the company saw a 13% drop in the year's first three months. Read more here © 2021 Bloomberg Finance LP Sila will soon start production of silicon anodes at your new plant in Moses Lake, Washington. What does the next year look like for the business? We're starting to turn on the tools. We're finishing major phases of construction, but this is a first of a kind plant in the world. No one operates a plant like this anywhere else. To commission it, you have to do it very systematically and you have to make sure you do it safely. We'll start commissioning this quarter and next quarter we'll start producing some materials at the plant. In Q3 we'll start to dial in all the recipes and with production once we've safely brought up all the tools. Then in Q4 we'll hit what I would call qualified production–quality, consistency, throughput, all of it. Those materials, as soon as they're available, will go to automotive customers. They'll go to consumer electronics battery customers. There'll be drone applications for them as well, and likely some kind of e-bike applications. We have a number of customers waiting to take qualified product from this plant at the back end of this year. Within 12 to 18 months of that we'll be in vehicles that you can buy. We'll likely be in consumer electronics devices you can buy with materials from this plant sooner–sometime next year–but vehicles late next year and or stretching into 2027. What's the advantage of silicon anodes cells over graphite anode cells? At the material level, silicon anodes are about five to seven times better. We can replace a hundred kilos of graphite in the car with 20 kilos of silicon. What that translates to, because that's one of the key components in a battery, in a battery is about a 25% increase in energy density over state-of-the-art [graphite] today. That means much longer runtime or a much smaller battery pack for the same runtime. That's today. We see that being pushed up to 30% or 40% over the next coming years as we continue to push higher performing products in the field. Will tariffs cause any problems for the key materials in your supply chain? They're almost entirely domestic, so we don't have a whole lot of exposure. We have some things that come from overseas, but nothing from China, so it's a very modest impact. For us, it's more of a question of our exports. We do export to various countries in Asia, including China, so tracking the retaliatory tariffs is definitely on our mind. Sila's Mose Lake anode plant China has had success with LFP batteries for EVs, which are heavier than traditional lithium-ion batteries but cheaper. Is that chemistry a long-term winner? I think LFP makes much less sense in the U.S. than it does in China, especially if we are looking for domestic supply chains. Our view is higher performance will be the best way to drive better EVs. I think higher performance materials like silicon anodes paired with recycled nickel cathodes will actually lead to one of the lowest cost structures possible because you'll produce battery packs that are half the size compared to an LFP pack. And if you use a battery pack half the size then as you kind of squeeze all the costs out, it's going to be cheaper than one twice the size; the vehicles will be lighter and they'll be more efficient. But you do have to have very high quality cathodes made with recycled nickel where you're not mining primary nickel, which is quite expensive, and you need a much larger scale silicon energy production, which we will take care of. We will absolutely do that. Donald Trump's crusade against offshore wind just got more serious. The Trump administration forced a permitted offshore wind project to halt construction. (The Verge) Massive cuts at the National Weather Service spark fears about forecast quality, public safety. The agency announced last week that staffing limitations may further reduce or suspend the launch of weather balloons (Los Angeles Times) Solar could lose its cost advantage over gas. Tariffs and the loss of Inflation Reduction Act incentives could realign new power pricing (Heatmap) Trump moves to allow commercial fishing in a vast, protected ocean reserve. The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument comprises more than 490,000 square miles of some of the Earth's last pristine maritime environments (Washington Post) By redefining 'harm' agencies aim to end longstanding wildlife protections. Trump officials have proposed changing a decades-old interpretation of a key word in the Endangered Species Act, which would make it much easier to log, build or drill for oil. (New York Times) Cleaner cars can't offset pollution from faster driving. A University of California, Riverside study shows that higher speed limits can make city air dirtier (UC Riverside)
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Uncertain Future for Clean Tech Boom Underway in Republican Districts
Government support for clean energy has spurred new projects across the U.S., with more than 80 percent of the investments flowing to Republican districts. But since President Trump took office, new spending has seen a precipitous drop. Since the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which authorized billions of dollars of support for clean tech, firms have announced hundreds of new projects that are collectively worth $129 billion, according to a new analysis from the nonprofit E2. Close to $107 billion of that money is going to congressional districts represented by Republicans for projects — such as solar, wind, and battery plants — that are expected to create nearly 82,000 jobs in total. But since President Trump took office in January, firms have backed off from announcing new projects. On his first day, Trump froze spending under the Inflation Reduction Act, and last month, firms announced just $176 million in new spending, the lowest level by far since the law was passed. Amid uncertainty, several firms have even cancelled projects, with the impact felt most acutely in GOP strongholds. Recent cancellations have sapped $2.7 billion in spending and cost an estimated 1,300 jobs in Republican districts, E2 estimates. Said Michael Timberlake, of E2, 'We hope leaders in Washington recognize what's at risk for businesses, workers, and communities across the country if this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues.'
