Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday that he canceled nearly $4 billion in project grants, in another massive blow to U.S. clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts under President Donald Trump’s administration, the Associated Press reports.
The grants, largely awarded during former President Joe Biden’s final few months in the White House, were primarily for programs to capture carbon emissions and store them underground. Other targeted efforts span cleaner cement, natural gas and more.
The news was a swift follow-up to plans the Energy Department announced earlier this month to review 179 funded projects, totaling over $15 billion, that were awarded by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations created under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
It is part of Wright’s pledge to ensure “responsible” spending, aligning with the government’s broader efficiency and cost-cutting measures, such as those recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency, which has significantly impacted federal research, workers and agencies.
The Trump administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations and withdrawn climate project funding, instead bolstering support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.
