The US Department of Energy (DOE) said today it was terminating grants worth up to $3.7bn for 24 clean energy projects it contends are economically unviable and fail to advance the energy needs of the US.

The grants, most of which were awarded in the final months of former president Joe Biden's term, would have injected millions of dollars of funding into novel commercial-scale projects related to carbon capture and storage (CCS), the electrification of hard-to-abate industrial processes, low-carbon cement, plastics recycling and hydrogen. President Donald Trump has attacked those types of programs as part of what he calls the "Green New Scam", as he has instead pushed to expand production and use of fossil fuels.

DOE said it canceled the 24 awards — which were set to be built in Texas, California, Alabama, Louisiana and other states — after a "thorough and individualized review" under a recently issued policy meant to identify the potential waste of taxpayer dollars, national security concerns and alignment with Trump's policies. The awards, funded with the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, would have only provided partial funding for a project.

"The Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment," US energy secretary Chris Wright said.

Among the awards that were canceled were multiple commercial-scale CCS projects, including up to $540mn in awards to add CCS equipment to Calpine's existing gas-fired plant in Baytown, Texas, and its gas-fired Sutter plant in Yuba City, California. DOE canceled two other awards, each worth up to $500mn, that would have added CCS equipment and use low-carbon feedstocks at cement plants in Louisiana and California.

DOE also terminated three grants that would have supported the use of low-carbon hydrogen, including an award of up to $332mn for ExxonMobil's olefins plant in Baytown, Texas, that would use hydrogen in place of natural gas for ethylene production. Another of the canceled awards would have offered $200mn to industrial firm Technip to use low-carbon hydrogen to produce ethanol and ethylene.

Democrats said canceling the grants would undercut innovation in the US, discourage private sector investment and harm those who were counting on the projects for construction work.

"The abrupt termination of $3.7bn in clean energy investment is shortsighted and malicious," US representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said. "This decision will raise energy costs for American families and undermine our nation's competitive edge."

By Chris Knight