With just two months until President Joe Biden’s administration ends, the U.S. Department of Energy continues to fund projects with federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. President-elect Donald Trump may find it hard to claw back the money.
Like much of the IRA funding, the latest DOE awards are going to states and districts that voted for Trump, and to projects with a lot of local and national media appeal. Pulling the plug on popular projects could create a virtual minefield for the president-elect and his DOE nominee, Chris Wright, CEO of a major fracking firm, Liberty Energy.
For example, on Nov. 13, DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) announced it had finalized a grant of $5 million in IRA funds that will go to the Dallas County, Ala., Board of Education for energy efficiency upgrades at nine schools, many of which were built in the 1950s, according to a project fact sheet. Ancient HVAC systems will be upgraded, and modern building controls installed.
Three schools also will get rooftop solar systems. The project is expected to take four years, and the money saved on the district’s energy bills could be reinvested in facilities and programs for students.
In Nevada, OCED signed a contract for a $14.6 million award to Nevada Gold Mines LLC to begin the first phase of a project to install 100 MW of solar and close to 250 MWh of energy storage to help decarbonize the company’s operations at a processing plant and a working mine. The total federal award for the project is $95 million.
The project is one of five DOE selected for funding in March under its Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land (CEML) with up to $475 million from the IIJA. Four of the five projects — in Nevada, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — have finalized contracts with DOE. Trump won all four states.
The fifth project, using geothermal energy and storage to increase production at a copper mine in Arizona, is in negotiations for its $80 million award, according to the CEML webpage.
These and other funding announcements made since Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election could present an obstacle to the president-elect’s plans for rolling back provisions and funding in the IRA, ostensibly to pay for extending his 2017 tax cuts.
Trump-proofing the IRA
During his visit to the Amazon rainforest Nov. 17, President Joe Biden defended the IRA and its clean energy programs against the rollbacks Trump likely is planning.
“It’s true some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America,” Biden said. “But nobody — nobody can reverse it — nobody. Not when so many people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits.”
Christian Roselund, a senior policy analyst at Clean Energy Associates, also is doubtful of a major IRA repeal — in particular, the clean energy investment and production tax credits ― saying the current situation is “complex and nuanced.”
“A main reason is that Republicans currently hold a six-seat majority in the U.S. House and are unlikely to get more than a seven-seat majority when the final five races are counted,” Roselund wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Meanwhile, of the 18 Republican members of the U.S. House who sent a letter to Speaker [Mike] Johnson [R-La.] opposing ITC/PTC repeal, 13 won reelection, and one race is still undecided.”
Still another, Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), won a Senate seat, and “Senate Republicans may be even more hesitant to make sweeping changes that affect projects underway and business certainty,” Roselund said.
The best way to Trump-proof the IRA funds is to get them out the door as quickly as possible, according to advocates such as Adam Deveny, former director of energy policy for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
In recent months, the pace of DOE award announcements has accelerated, Deveny, founder of Climate Vision, a policy advisory group, told Canary Media. “Getting that money out the door is critical, because any unspent money is at risk of not ever getting spent,” he said.
The latest money going out the door, on Nov. 18, is close to $15 million for nine research and development projects that will combine hydropower with other renewables and storage “to increase hydropower’s ability to respond to changing demand on the electric grid,” according to the DOE announcement.
Hydro provides 6% of U.S. power and 27% of the nation’s renewable energy, according to DOE. It also can ramp up or down quickly to ensure flexibility for grid reliability, possibly making it another no-go for potential rollbacks.
DRG Technical Solutions of Memphis, Tenn., was selected to receive more than $3 million for a project meant to demonstrate the use of hydropower to produce clean hydrogen at a hydro facility in Colorado.
“That hydrogen can then be stored to provide electricity to the grid when needed, and power or fuel for electric and hydrogen vehicles,” the announcement says.
