- Newly inaugurated USA President, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order that instructs all government agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” for clean energy projects.
- The pause on disbursing funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is laid out in a section of a broader executive order on “Unleashing American Energy,” entitled “Terminating the Green New Deal.”
Donald Trump has adopted the “Green New Deal” moniker for a slew of energy and climate policies he opposes, including the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits, grants, and incentives for clean energy, electric vehicles, and programs to reduce climate and environmental pollution.
The order calls on federal agencies to halt all disbursements while they “review their processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements of such appropriated funds for consistency with the law.” It gives federal agencies 90 days to report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the head of the National Economic Council on how the frozen spending aligns with the administration’s overall energy goals.
The projects include seven large regional clean hydrogen hubs that were awarded billions of dollars by the Biden administration under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). These projects, some under construction, have all previously received initial funding in the tens of millions of dollars.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
