ICYMI: New York Times, Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Red States Have the Most to Lose.

Washington, D.C. — Trump’s funding cuts have caused chaos and confusion throughout key industries and states. The New York Times reported that Trump’s efforts to gut clean energy progress will do the most damage to Republican states and districts, who have seen hundreds of thousands of new jobs thanks to clean energy investments. 

New York Times: Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Red States Have the Most to Lose.

In less than three weeks, President Trump has thrown the U.S. clean energy industry into chaos, with much of the economic damage hitting Republican states and districts.

In a quest to eliminate any funding linked to climate change, the Trump administration has frozen federal grants for everything from battery factories to electric school buses and issued executive orders that have halted federal approvals for wind and solar projects.

Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress are also working to repeal the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is projected to pour hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade into low-carbon energy technologies through tax credits, loans and grants.

So far, Republican-voting communities have benefited the most from that law. In the nearly three years since it was passed, private companies chasing the law’s tax breaks have announced plans to spend $165.8 billion to build factories that make solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and more, according to new data from Atlas Public Policy, a research firm. Roughly 80 percent of those investments are in Republican congressional districts, where they are creating a once-in-a-generation manufacturing boom.

The Inflation Reduction Act, along with a separate 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, also provided tens of billions of dollars in grants that have since been awarded by the federal government to private companies, states and nonprofit organizations. These are legally binding obligations that have allowed companies to make investments, sign leases and hire workers, with the expectation that they would be reimbursed by the government.

Two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to end its freeze and release money from programs authorized by Congress, but there is evidence that several agencies are still blocking funding.

The uncertainty is delaying projects and halting investments in areas that voted for Mr. Trump. In Montana, a biofuels plant did not receive on time a $782 million payment it was owed, the first part of a $1.67 billion federal loan guarantee. In Georgia, $1 billion in projects to modernize the power grid are on hold. In Nevada, a half-dozen large solar projects on federal lands are caught in a permitting freeze.

The upheaval has put Republicans in the tricky position of defending a White House that deems money for clean energy a “waste of taxpayer dollars” while working behind the scenes to protect their towns from the loss of new manufacturing jobs.

“This is where we get a test of whether the Republican Party is a real political party serving its constituents, or a personality cult,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental advocacy groups.

“I expect thousands of people to be laid off, I expect workers to be furloughed, and I expect construction projects to halt,” Mr. Walsh said.