By Mark Jaffe, EUCI energy writer
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has canceled $3.7 billion in grants to industries aimed at cutting carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency at facilities ranging from cement kilns to a ketchup factory.
“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,” the department said.
Twenty-four projects were canceled, 16 of them awarded by the Biden administration between election day and January 20, 2025 when Donald Trump was sworn in as president.
“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 utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
A $332 million canceled award for ExxonMobil was for a project to swap out natural gas for hydrogen at its Baytown, Texas, chemical plant and a $270 million carbon capture project at Calpine Corp.’s Baytown natural gas-fired power plant was also voided.
Three grants to capture carbon at cement kilns were rescinded, including the two largest awards – a $500 million award to Heidelberg Materials for a project in Louisiana and $500 million to the National Cement Co.
Brimstone Energy, a startup with a technology to produce cement and smelter grade alumina, had a $189 million grant canceled.
“Given our project’s strong alignment with President Trump’s priority to increase U.S. production of critical minerals, we believe this was a misunderstanding,” Brimstone spokesperson Liza Darwin said in a statement.
The Brimstone technology, Darwin said, is one of the only that can economically produce mineral alumina from U.S.-mined rock.
“The abrupt termination of $3.7 billion in clean energy investment is shortsighted and malicious,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat and ranking member on the House appropriation subcommittee on energy and water development, said in a statement.
“We’re ceding ground to global competitors racing ahead in innovation and energy efficiency,” Kaptur said.
Grants to manufacturing plants for clean energy technologies have also been canceled, including a $170 million award to Kraft Heinz to install clean heat technology at 10 production facilities and $75 million to beverage company Diageo North America to help install thermal energy storage systems at plants in Kentucky and Illinois.
The American Cast Iron Pipe Co. lost a $75 million grant to lower emission in steelmaking at its Brimingham, Alabama, plant, and United States Pipe and Foundry lost a $75 million award to replace a coal-fired furnace with an electric arc furnace at its Bessemer, Alabama, plant.
More than half of the canceled grants were in states that voted for President Trump in the last election.
“This program could have been a centerpiece of achieving the administration’s goal to bring manufacturing back to the United States,” Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said in a statement. “Choosing to cancel these awards is shortsighted, and I think we’re going to look back at this moment with regret.”
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