US pulls $3bn in funding from 24 clean energy projects

Over $3bn of funding for 24 clean energy projects, mostly related to carbon capture efforts, has been axed by the US government.

According to Reuters and Bloomberg, ExxonMobil’s Baytown project in Texas, Heidelberg Materials US’s carbon capture project in Louisiana, and the Sutter CCUS project in California are among the projects impacted by the cut.

Jessie Stolark, Executive Director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, described the news as a “major step backward” in the national deployment of carbon management technologies.

“It is hugely disappointing to see these projects cancelled – projects that had already progressed through a rigorous, months-long review process by technical experts at [the Department of Energy],” she said.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the department is acting in the “best interest” of the American people in cancelling the funds.

He accused the previous administration of failing to conduct a thorough financial review before “signing away” billions of taxpayer dollars and said the Trump administration is now doing its due diligence.

Nearly 70% of the cancelled projects were signed between Election Day and 20 January.

The news follows a secretarial memorandum issued by the Department of Energy [DOE] last month, which outlined a case-by-case review policy.

The review process evaluated each of the 24 awards and said they did not meet the economic, national security or energy security standards necessary to sustain DOE’s investment.

Significant delays and challenges in the deployment of carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies had already been highlighted by the International Energy Agency prior to the funding cut.

Stolark of the Carbon Capture Coalition added that the US had been a leader in the development and deployment of carbon management technologies but this move and others risked ceding America’s energy and technological leadership to other nations.

“As the policy framework in other nations for carbon management continues to mature, we risk being left behind,” she added.

None of the companies reported to have been impacted has yet issued public statements.