DOE halts diversity, equity work and funding

By Hannah Northey | 01/24/2025 06:39 AM EST

The move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order ending policies tied to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Department of Energy building is seen.

The Department of Energy building. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The Energy Department’s acting secretary on Thursday told staff that it is halting the agency’s diversity and equity work and funding tied to community benefit plans and the Biden administration’s Justice40 program, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.

Ingrid Kolb, the acting secretary, told staff that the department — following agencies like EPA — is “moving aggressively” to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order and stopping “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, policies as well as funding tied to those objectives.

DOE, said Kolb, is suspending any work ”requiring, using, or enforcing Community Benefits Plans, and requiring, using, or enforcing Justice40 requirements, conditions, or principles in any loans, loan guarantees, grants, cost sharing agreements, funding opportunity announcements, contracts, contract awards, or any other source of financial assistance.”

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The Biden administration launched the Justice40 program through an executive order with the goal of ensuring 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, energy and other areas flowed to disadvantaged communities. Community benefit agreements were a tool used to achieve that objective — the binding, enforceable agreements laid out the benefits for host communities in return for their support or nonopposition to the project.

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