On Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the termination of 321 grants worth about $7.5 billion for projects across the country, including at least three in Boulder County and 34 in Colorado. Most of the projects were related to clean energy or climate research.
In its statement, the Department of Energy said the canceled projects “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.” The cuts come as President Trump has sought to roll back funding for what he calls “Democrat agencies,” and most of the terminated projects are in states won by Kamala Harris in 2024.
Meanwhile, the costs of clean energy technologies — including solar, wind and battery storage — have declined significantly in recent years, making them increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. Scientists warn that rapidly reaching net-zero fossil fuel emissions is essential to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.
Two of the terminated Boulder County grants listed by House Democrats had already been frozen in March: one for $5.3 million and another for $1.5 million, both to RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute), a nonpartisan clean energy think tank. The larger grant would have retrofitted low-income multifamily buildings, consolidating heating, cooling, ventilation and other building controls to demonstrate ways to reduce energy use. The other grant funded assessments of electric carshare business models.
Most recently, the DOE canceled a $3 million grant for RMI to create a plan for a “direct air capture hub” in the Pacific Northwest, a project designed to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, addressing the main driver of climate change. While the DOE now says these projects don’t meet its economic criteria, the same department under the Biden administration had described direct air capture hubs as “key to reinforcing our nation’s global competitiveness and delivering new economic opportunities for American communities and industries.”
Daniel Pike, RMI principal, told Boulder Reporting Lab in a statement that the Pacific Northwest’s workforce and geography make it ideally positioned to lead globally in clean technologies. “Without federal funding to assess the feasibility of a Direct Air Capture hub in the region,” he said, “the industry-leading companies involved in the project may look outside the U.S. market.”
Elsewhere in Boulder County, Amicus O&M, a Longmont solar energy company, lost $1.5 million in funding to provide training and certifications intended to increase “equity, safety and professional quality” among its staff. Louisville-based AMP Robotics lost $5.9 million for developing a prototype to sort recycled batteries more efficiently, and Boulder-based RCAM Technologies lost $2 million to develop support structures for offshore wind turbines.
Another $8.3 million in grants to the CU Board of Regents for research and development efforts in solar, biomass, hydrogen and fuel cells, wind, hydropower and geothermal energies was also canceled. Of that total, $4.8 million had yet to be awarded, according to CU spokesperson Nicole Mueksch.
“The attempt to use a government shutdown to unlawfully rescind already appropriated funds and terminate federal employees is illegal, pure and simple,” Boulder’s Rep. Joe Neguse said in a statement, calling the move “shameful.”
“These acts of retribution are intended to stoke fear,” Neguse continued, “and Democrats must use every legal and legislative tool to reverse these decisions and hold the administration accountable — which is exactly what we intend to do.”
I have several comments on this article. 1) If the costs of clean energy technologies — from solar and wind to battery storage — have plummeted in recent years, making many projects less expensive than fossil fuels, sounds like the free market should take this and run with it. 2) the $5.3 million to RMI to retrofit low-income multifamily buildings, consolidating heating, cooling, ventilation and other building controls to demonstrate ways to reduce energy use, sounds like a landlord issue, no need for the Gov’t to subsidize. 3) The $1.5 million to RMI funding assessments of electric carshare business models sounds more like a masters thesis or business investment, not Gov’t study. 4) Amicus O&M, a Longmont solar energy company, lost $1.5 million in funding to provide training and certifications intended to increase “equity, safety and professional quality” among its staff. This sounds like it should come from Amicus as an investment in their own business, not the Gov’t responsibility.
Most of these grants should be done by investment companies and they would get the return on their investments. When the gov’t gives grants out to develop new technology, they don’t get any return on their investment. Let capitalism reign and people looking for investment opportunities put up the capital for these projects.
Standard contract law is breached when contracts are canceled without justification. I hope there are penalties to pay that we will receive in Colorado. As far as trying to justify this type of brutal business practice as some sort of an attempt at cost savings; it’s waste the time. This is simply politicizing environmental action. This retribution and revenge and small-minded petty warfare which will not in any way help anyone in any way. Shameful. Again trying to rationalize or make some good out of this… It’s not even intended to be good. However, necessity is the mother of invention. Let’s get back to the drawing board.