...this puts paid to EV/Lithium stocks returning to their former peaks again (Tesla excepted).
...Mr Trump said people may not be able to watch telly watching him if the wind stops blowing, lol.
Trump halts $479b in green deal funding Amanda Chu and Jamie Smyth
Jan 22, 2025 – 6.10pm
New York | Donald Trump’s return to the White House has put more than $US300 billion ($479 billion) of potential federal infrastructure funding at risk, US investors say, as they grapple with the scale of his move to unpick Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
Within hours of his inauguration on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), Mr Trump signed scores of executive orders rescinding Mr Biden’s policies, including one halting federal disbursements to manufacturers and infrastructure developers.
Wind-turbine components at a construction hub in Rhode Island, US. Bloomberg
The funds affected were provided under two of Mr Biden’s signature legislative achievements — the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law — and include almost $US50 billion in Department of Energy loans already agreed and another $US280 billion worth of loan requests under review, according to Financial Times analysis of the DoE’s loan portfolio.
“All agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated” through the acts, the Trump administration said in an executive order titled “Unleash American Energy”.
Among the disbursements now immediately in peril are a $US9 billion conditional loan to Michigan-based utility DTE Energy and another of $US3.5 billion to Oregon-based utility PacifiCorp.
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DTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. PacifiCorp said it was working with the department on the loan guarantee conditions.
“If you had grants, loan guarantees, funding that was sort of tied in with the IRA and the money’s not out the door yet, it’s going to be very hard to see that money go out the door under the Trump administration,” said Rob Barnett, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
The executive order was among dozens signed by Mr Trump in a late-night blitz after he was sworn in for a second presidential term and promised to end Mr Biden’s “Green New Deal” and boost fossil-fuel output.
Mr Trump’s move to halt the funding sent a shockwave through the clean-energy sector and signalled his intent to undermine Mr Biden’s industrial policy, particularly his programmes to speed up an energy transition.
“The executive orders indicate that federal funding for EV and battery manufacturing will be harder to access, increasing the risk of stranded capital for manufacturing projects already under way,” said Shay Natarajan at Mobility Impact Partners, a private equity fund based in New York.
The 2021 infrastructure law offered $US1.2 billion to improve the country’s transport system, while the IRA offered $US370 billion in tax credits, grants and loans.
Both programs vastly expanded the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which was responsible for doling out $US400 billion to developers and has been a favourite target of Republican attacks.
Investors said they feared another $US300 billion worth of future federal funding – mostly from the infrastructure law – would also now be frozen by Trump’s move.
Unlike the money in the loans office, the IRA’s tax credits – the main form of subsidy in the legislation – are unlikely to be affected. The credits have been a primary driver of investment, with manufacturers committing more than $US130 billion since the law passed, according to FT analysis.
Fearing that Mr Trump would move to halt the disbursements, Mr Biden’s officials rushed nearly $US50 billion in loan commitments out to developers in the weeks after he won re-election in November.
Mr Trump also wants to stop construction of wind farms on federal land and waters and said he would end “unfair subsidies” for electric vehicles. Shares in Tesla, Rivian, Ørsted and other EV and wind companies fell on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).
This week Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian Group said it was scrapping plans to build a factory in Somerset, Massachusetts, which would have made cables for the offshore wind sector.
Other investors had already scaled back their US renewable energy plans in the US ahead of Mr Trump’s return. German energy giant RWE announced in November it was pulling back its US wind-power plans.
Nearly 25 gigawatts of offshore wind projects, 65 per cent of the US projects in development, are unlikely to progress under the Trump administration, Rystad Energy said on Tuesday.
“When you start to make it look like there’s a lack of stability in the investment that you thought you were making into the US, that has a potentially very negative effect, long term, on our ability to attract capital,” said Eli Hinckley, a partner at Baker Botts.
