States and companies are feeling the squeeze from President Donald Trump’s decision to shut off access to climate and clean energy programs funded by the Department of Energy.
A sustainable aviation fuel maker in Montana said a $782 million loan payment from the Energy Department had been delayed “to confirm alignment with White House priorities.”
In Arizona, state officials discovered that DOE funds earmarked for home electrification rebates had been paused.
And in Vermont, state officials were dreading a routine request for reimbursement from DOE, not knowing what would happen.
Trump’s directive to pause federal funding associated with climate programs is creating a growing uncertainty among recipients of DOE dollars. The freeze has persisted in some cases through Thursday, despite a pair of federal court rulings ordering the Trump administration to resume payments to states.
“It has been radio silence from DOE,” said Melissa Bailey, director of Vermont’s state energy office. “We are concerned and monitoring the situation.”
The DOE freeze mirrors similar pauses at other federal agencies like EPA, where funding for solar projects and greenhouse gas reduction grants has been held up. But while funding has been partially restored at EPA following the court rulings, some DOE recipients said they still could not access funding.
Colorado officials were watching to see if the Trump administration complies with a restraining order issued by a federal judge in Rhode Island, requiring the federal government to continue already approved payments to states.
Colorado has received $500 million from 19 grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure law. The funding provides money for everything from home weatherization to grid resilience projects, said Josh Chetwynd, the state director of climate communications.
“As of Thursday, February 6th, we can see all our accounts for DOE grants, but have not yet been able to access any funds or submit reimbursements,” Chetwynd said in a statement. “We continue to monitor our accounts as this situation is fluid and we hope the status of accounts changes soon to comply with the court’s TRO [temporary restraining order].”
In Arizona, state officials attempted to access DOE funding set aside for electrification rebates this week, only to find that the funds had been paused pending an agency review. The state has received $153 million for energy rebates, split evenly between efficiency and electrification measures.
The electrification money is being used to help Arizonians replace inefficient air conditioning units with more efficient heat pumps, with a focus on helping low-income households, said Blaise Caudill, deputy director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Resiliency.
“That really is a true concern,” he said. “We know that there are households in Arizona struggling to make ends meet, and these dollars are really trying to help those households.”
In his “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, Trump ordered a pause in the disbursement of funds under the IRA and bipartisan infrastructure law. Together, the legislation provided hundreds of billions of dollars in climate and clean energy funding. Ingrid Kolb, acting DOE secretary in the first weeks of the Trump administration, issued an order calling for a review of those grants and loans.
Delay of ‘days or weeks’
The pause illustrates the rapidly shifting priorities of DOE, which spent four years under former President Joe Biden parceling out money for everything from electric vehicle charging infrastructure and sustainable aviation projects to home efficiency and electrification rebates.
In an order signed Wednesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the department would focus on increasing access to energy. The order said “great attention has been paid” to net-zero climate policies, which “raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security.”
DOE is now working to fulfill Trump’s pledge to provide “affordable, reliable and secure energy,” said Ben Dietderich, a department spokesperson.
“The Department of Energy is conducting a department-wide review, which includes funding such as grants and loans, to ensure all activities are consistent with President Trump’s executive orders and priorities,” Dietderich said in a statement.
Companies have also been impacted by the pause. Calumet, a specialty products and renewable fuels maker, announced that its $1.44 billion DOE loan would “undergo a tactical delay to confirm alignment with White House priorities.”
The company finalized the loan with DOE’s Loan Program Office on Jan. 10 and had been due $782 million on Jan. 28. The loan was intended to finance the expansion of a renewable fuels facility in Great Falls, Montana, that would use vegetable oils, fats and grease to produce sustainable aviation fuel.
“The Company was informed that the delay should be days or weeks,” Calumet said in a statement announcing the review. CEO Todd Borgmann expressed confidence the project is “well aligned with the White House priorities,” noting that the president’s executive orders highlight the importance of biofuels.
A Calumet spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.
DOE’s loan program has been under intense scrutiny by Republicans after the Biden administration completed 13 loans and loan guarantees amounting to $46 billion in the final 10 weeks of the president’s term.
It is not clear how broad the freeze is. Many companies that have received loans from DOE’s loan office declined to comment. Links on the department’s website to past funding announcements abruptly stopped working Thursday, rerouting users to DOE’s main page.
A department official who was granted anonymity to speak said: “Under review, doesn’t mean it is canceled. It doesn’t mean deleted.”
‘Fingers crossed’
Some company executives projected confidence that the pause was part of a normal review process that accompanies a change in administrations.
Gevo received a conditional $1.46 billion loan guarantee from DOE in October to help finance a sustainable aviation fuel facility in South Dakota.
Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s CEO, said he had not seen anything “abnormal” from DOE and expects the loan to move forward because it aligns with the Trump administration’s wider aims.
“I would say business as normal,” Gruber said.
Other companies signaled they were prepared to move ahead even if federal money fails to materialize. Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, finalized a $15 billion loan guarantee with LPO in January to support battery facilities, transmission upgrades, virtual power plants and hydropower production.
Jennifer Robison, a PG&E spokesperson, said the projects are not contingent on DOE’s loan guarantee. Investments in those areas are already planned and have received regulatory approval when needed.
“The loan guarantee would allow us to do that necessary work at a lower cost to customers,” Robison said. “The savings could be used to lower customer bills, as well as to complete more work at the same cost to customers. We think this is a great opportunity to lower costs for our customers.”
State officials signaled they intend to fight for the funding. Danielle Burney, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said New England states had received more than $1 billion “to build a more resilient energy grid, lower costs, and create thousands of jobs.”
“We secured these funds through agreements with federal agencies, and those agreements should be honored by the new administration,” Burney said.
In Vermont, the state has not yet tried to access DOE dollars, said Bailey, who runs the state energy office. The state typically requests federal reimbursements around the middle of each month. Vermont received approval from the Biden administration for $60 million in DOE funding for rebates, with the money evenly split between efficiency and electrification improvements. The efficiency money has been finalized and has been committed to help low-income Vermonters make upgrades in their homes, she said.
Funding for electrification rebates is conditional, and Bailey said she is worried that the money might be revoked, disrupting plans to create a state rebate program later this year.
As for the energy efficiency rebates, the federal government’s payment system showed that $29 million in home efficiency funding is available to the state. That is in contrast to funding for EPA’s Solar for All program, which has disappeared from the payment system, Bailey said.
For now, Vermont is conducting business as usual and staying in compliance with its federal awards, she said.
“We’re trying to be patient and sit tight,” Bailey said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
