How Trump Energy Department is Clawing Back $15 Billion from Biden ‘Green New Scam’

The Biden administration issued billions in taxpayer-funded green grants–many to large multinational corporations. Now the Trump administration’s Energy Secretary Christopher Wright ordered a review of 179 recipients to save $15 billion.

Meanwhile, some recipients of the Biden-era green grants told The Daily Signal they plan to proceed with the projects. 

One of the biggest sources of green grants under the Biden administration was the Energy Department’s Industrial Demonstrations Program. The program was slated to dole out $6.3 billion to 29 taxpayer-funded projects. 

Projects listed include spending up to $331.9 million for an ExxonMobil project in Texas; up to $375 million for an Eastman Chemical decarbonization project in Texas; up to $95 million to the Dow Chemical project on the Gulf Coast; and up to $75 million to a BASF project in Texas. 

“What we can share is that, as of October 2024, BASF has entered into a cooperative agreement with the DOE for our proposed low-carbon syngas project at our Freeport, Texas site,” Julia Arns, external communications manager for BASF, told The Daily Signal. “With this, we have started Phase 1 of our project: initial planning and analysis. Throughout the entire process BASF will collaborate with the DOE to develop the appropriate deliverables necessary to progress to the following phases.”

Notably on the list, a $500 million subsidy for a project in Vice President J.D. Vance’s Ohio hometown. The Cleveland Cliffs company announced in March 2024 that it would get about $575 million in federal funding for two projects, a $500 million grant for a project in Middletown, Ohio, and another $75 million  grant for a Lyndora, Pennsylvania project. Both projects were canceled, CNN first reported. However, a spokesperson from Cleveland Cliff did not respond to inquiries on voicemail and online for this story. 

Orsted, a Denmark-based energy company, is on the list to get an Energy Department grant of up to $99 million for a Texas Gulf Coast project that involves capturing carbon dioxide to reduce emissions from sectors such as shipping.

“The DOE award is proceeding to schedule as we continue to develop the project,” Jakob Goetzsche Vesterager, senior media relations advisor for Orsted, told The Daily Signal in a statement. “We’re aware that the program is currently under review, but there have been no changes to the award for Project Star at this time.”

The energy secretary’s memorandum said the department will require recipients of money to “provide written responses and supporting documentation to its information requests within communicated timeframes, and to cooperate with program personnel on any follow up requests, including verbal requests, in a timely manner, to facilitate this review.” 

Most of the grants were funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, two major bills passed during the Biden administration. The Industrial Demonstrations Program itself was established in 2020 to boost manufacturing during the last year of the first Trump administration. 

“The Biden administration spent money we didn’t have to pay for things we didn’t need,” James Carter, a former deputy assistant secretary of treasury and former deputy undersecretary of labor in the George W. Bush administration, told The Daily Signal.  

Regarding the administration cutting an expensive project in the vice president’s home turf, Carter said the administration has shown leadership in putting the national interest ahead of parochial or short-term political interest. 

“There are exceptions, but anything enacted during the Biden administration has a bullseye on it,” Carter told The Daily Signal. 

The energy secretary’s memo Thursday, titled “Ensuring Responsibility for Financial Assistance,” comes after the White House budget proposal called for cancelling $15 billion in what it calls “Green New Scam” funds. 

“Over the past 110 days, the Energy Department has been hard at work reviewing the billions of dollars that were rushed out the door, particularly in the final days of the Biden administration, and what we have found is concerning,” Wright said in a public statement. 

“With this process, the department will ensure we are doing our due diligence, utilizing taxpayer dollars to generate the largest possible benefit to the American people and safeguarding our national security,” Wright continued. “Any reputable business would have a process in place for evaluating spending and investments before money goes out the door, and the American people deserve no less from their federal government.”

This year, Cleveland Cliffs–the firm slated to get $500 million for a project in the vice president’s hometown, reportedly laid off 1,200 workers in Minnesota and Michigan, and was reportedly set to layoff another 950 employees in Illinois and Pennsylvania. 

Job losses shouldn’t be blamed on canceled government subsidies, said Vance Ginn, a former associate director for economic policy for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration. 

“These jobs from government subsidies are temporary jobs,” Ginn, now a senior economic fellow with the Pelican Institute, a Louisiana think tank, told The Daily Signal. “During the Biden years, and the Inflation Reduction Act, we saw this green new scheme grow and grow.”

Government subsidies don’t have the strongest track record. 

A 2016 Energy Information Administration report said more than 70% of energy-related physical science grants went to solar energy research. 

A 2012 report by the Government Accountability Office found 679 renewable energy initiatives across 23 federal agencies. 

Meanwhile, 29 states require utilities to generate or obtain specific amounts of electricity from renewable energy sources, according to Just Facts, a conservative-leaning fact checking organization
Still, despite heavy subsidies since 1978, wind supplied about 3.9% of U.S. energy in 2024, while solar provided 2.7%, according to Just Facts, citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Office of Energy statistics from March.

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