Energy Department Could Ax Costly Renewable Energy Offices
May 16, 2025
The Department of Energy (DOE) is reportedly considering the closure of federal programs devoted to renewable energy as part of President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request.
The potential cuts, worth millions of dollars, would impact offices within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, including Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies, Solar Energy Technologies, Wind Energy Technologies and Renewable Energy Grid Integration, according to a document reviewed by Politico’s E&E News. This is the latest reported slashing of government funds for climate and renewable energy initiatives that were championed during former President Joe Biden’s administration, though Congress will ultimately have to sign off on the decision.
“Recently I’ve been called a climate denier or climate skeptic. This is simply wrong. I am a climate realist,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said during a speech in March. “Responses to climate change bring their own set of trade-offs. The Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens,” he continued.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright delivered remarks outside the White House on March 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy “regularly issues funding opportunities” through its 11 sub offices and other programs which finance solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen and fuel cell systems development. Each sub office has invested millions into renewable projects over the years, some of which were wholly devoted to funding or developing a particular kind of renewable energy, as is the case with the Wind Energy Technologies Office, the Solar Energy Technologies Office and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.
Renewable energy projects were regularly promoted by the Biden administration through executive action as well as through the former president’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which he signed in August 2022. While the bill was initially touted as a means of reducing record-high inflation, Biden later admitted its purpose was to advance his climate change policies. Biden allocated approximately $370 billion towards efforts to combat climate change through the IRA.
Trump, who declared a national energy emergency immediately after returning to office, previously referred to the IRA as the “Green New Scam” and vowed while on the campaign trail to “rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed” act. Republican lawmakers have since introduced measures that would repeal several subsidies provided under the IRA, including for hydrogen development and electric vehicles.
The president stated in a Jan. 20 executive order that the “integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure” is “an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security.”
The DOE, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies and Solar Energy Technologies did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. The Wind Energy Technologies declined to comment and referred the DCNF to DOE.
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