The U.S. Department of Energy is building a list of hundreds of grants and projects that it says no longer match department priorities and need to be cut, but one think tank whose grants were targeted says its work will continue.
Boulder, Colorado based Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a nonprofit that conducts research into clean energy and works with businesses, legislators, communities and NGOs on greenhouse gas reduction measures.
In late March, the DOE said it would cancel grants for two projects RMI was working on, according to a report by The Associated Press. These included a $5.3 million low-income family dwelling retrofit project in California and Massachusetts, and a $1.5 million grant to investigate electric vehicle sharing business models in U.S. cities.
Dina Cappiello, spokeswoman for RMI told T&D World they received notices of termination for two DOE grants through emailed letters. They said the work "no longer effectuates program goals or agency priorities.”
One of the two grants, which was for building retrofits, was awarded during Trump’s first term. The grants represent a small fraction of our annual budget, Cappiello said.
These cancelations are just two of about 300 grants under review at the DOE. Many of these are loans or grants from the Inflation Reduction Act. A program or project that has spent less than 45% of its earmarked funding will be reviewed, according to a report from Politico.
Speaking on actions taken by the Trump administration, Cappiello told T&D World that RMI’s work would continue.
“Since its founding more than 40 years ago, RMI has received U.S. government contracts and grants under both Republican and Democratic administrations that have helped to advance secure, reliable, efficient, and clean energy solutions. We continue to evaluate the impact of the current administration’s actions on our federally funded work. Such moves will slow and at worst halt the myriad benefits of moving a clean energy agenda forward – including affordable energy costs for families and businesses; resilient community energy sources; and competitive and innovative industries that already provide good jobs throughout the U.S.” Cappiello said.
Dina Cappiello, spokeswoman for RMI
Globally, RMI research shows rapid advances in the deployment of wind, solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles. In the U.S., investments are spurring a cleantech manufacturing boom nationwide that is bringing down costs for families and businesses, improving energy reliability, and creating employment and growth in both red and blue parts of the country, according to RMI.
Billions of dollars could be in the balance, originally intended to fund research and demonstration funding to projects involving renewable energy, energy storage, hydrogen economy, carbon capture, energy efficiency and distributed energy systems.
RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Oakland, California; Washington, D.C.; Nigeria; and Beijing.
