On 30 May, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced the termination of 24 awards (listed right) issued by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) under the previous administration, primarily consisting of carbon capture and sequestration and decarbonisation initiatives. The cancelled awards represented a total of over $3.7 billion in “taxpayer-funded financial assistance.”
After a “thorough and individualised financial review of each award,” DOE found that these projects “failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars,” Secretary Wright said.
Of the 24 awards cancelled, nearly 70% (16 of the 24 projects) were signed between election day and 20 January.
“While the previous administration failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilising taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment,” said Secretary Wright. “Today, we are acting in the best interest of the American people by cancelling these 24 awards.”
DOE had previously issued a Secretarial Memorandum entitled, Ensuring responsibility for financial assistance, which outlined DOE’s policy for “evaluating financial assistance on a case-by-case basis to identity waste of taxpayer dollars, protect America’s national security and advance President Trump’s commitment to unleash affordable, reliable and secure energy for the American people.” DOE says it used this review process to evaluate each of the 24 awards and determine that they “did not meet the economic, national security or energy security standards necessary to sustain DOE’s investment.”
