The Trump administration plans to preserve billions of dollars in funding for hydrogen ventures and other projects previously earmarked for termination.
An Energy Department list that includes proposals backed by oil companies, utilities and others was provided to House Appropriations Committee members Wednesday and details roughly 2,000 funding awards the agency plans to “retain or modify.”
Included on the 39-page list seen by Bloomberg is almost $5 billion previously awarded by the Biden administration for five so-called hydrogen hubs — broad networks of producers and consumers in Texas, Appalachia, the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest — and backed by companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Exelon Corp.
The hydrogen projects, which include ventures involving Chevron Corp., EQT Corp. and Bloom Energy Corp., were included last year in a list of roughly $12 billion in energy projects that the Trump administration was considering cancelling. The Biden administration awarded $7 billion for the ventures, meant to jump start production of the clean-burning fuel in the US in 2023.
Also revived were a pair of direct-air capture projects that had been selected by the Biden administration to split $1.2 billion: one from Occidental Petroleum Corp. and another from Climeworks AG and Heirloom Carbon Technologies Inc. Those developments are intended to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air.
Some direct air capture projects included on the department’s retain list were notified in recent days of the development, said Giana Amador, executive director of the Carbon Removal Alliance, an advocacy group.
“We think is a really positive step and a confirmation from the Department of Energy that carbon removal is a priority in the administration,” Amador said in an interview.
Funding for an Indiana cement plant that will incorporate carbon-capture technology and led by the North American subsidiary of Heidelberg Materials AG was reinstated as well, according to the list. Also included on the list was $1 billion in grants awarded to automakers Stellantis and General Motors Co.
The Energy Department confirmed the list, but didn’t provide comment. It remains unclear in what ways the funding awards could be modified.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, testifying before a House Appropriations subpanel on Wednesday, noted a review of some 2,200 projects had been completed and that the agency was “keen to move forward” with the majority of them either as-is or subject to modification.
The department initiated a case-by-case review of some $15 billion in grants awarded by the previous administration in May and has since announced plans to cancel billions of projects, including $7.6 billion in Democrat-led states.
The majority of those cuts are moving forward including plans to slash billions in funding for a pair of West coast hydrogen hubs.
“Energy prices are rising,” Representative Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat, said at the appropriations hearing Wednesday. “This is the moment to invest in American innovation not throttle it.”
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