The Trump administration on Thursday announced a wide-ranging review of more than $15 billion in federal awards approved under President Joe Biden.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a memo to staff called for ramping up oversight of at least 179 awards and said decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis about whether the awards meet the administration’s standards.
While Wright has told lawmakers that the agency is already reviewing funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law, the memo that the agency released Thursday sets the stage for DOE to pull back funding for scores of projects if recipients don’t respond quickly or sufficiently enough, and to possibly expand the scope of the audit.
“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 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.”
DOE didn’t immediately respond when asked what types of projects would be affected by the memo.
According to a copy of the memo released by DOE, Wright said the agency will prioritize “large-scale commercial projects that require more detailed information from the awardees for the initial phase of this review, but this process may extend to other DOE program offices as the reviews progress.”
Trump in recent weeks has called for steep budget cuts at DOE, blasted what he says is the “Green New Scam,” and offered to truncate environmental reviews for projects tied to mining, oil and gas — but not wind and solar.
At DOE, audits will use previously submitted data from award recipients, DOE’s own investigation or analysis, or the agency may ask recipients for more information about the project’s financial health, technological and engineering viability, market conditions, compliance with award terms and conditions, and compliance with legal requirements, including those related to national security.
“If it is determined that a project meets Standards, then those projects will proceed,” Wright wrote in the memo.
“If it is determined that projects do not meet Standards, DOE may modify the project or, DOE in its discretion, may terminate the project based on the outcome of DOE’s evaluation, as allowed by law,” he continued.
“Further, if a recipient of financial assistance fails to respond to information requests within the provided time frame, does not respond to follow-up questions in a timely manner, or offers incomplete responses that do not reasonably facilitate DOE’s review, DOE may treat as the recipient’s refusal to cooperate as grounds for termination of the award or the withholding of funding,” Wright wrote.
Wright, during a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, vowed to move forward with at least some clean energy projects, following a vetting process that he said could be wrapped up this summer.
“We are reviewing existing projects; we’ve canceled zero so far,” Wright said at the time.
He also said there isn’t a desire to “shrink or stop any of the critical research” in the DOE’s national lab network.
Reporter Christa Marshall contributed.
