Thomas Catenacci of the Washington Free Beacon reports on a Trump administration move away from bad Biden energy policies.
The Trump administration is considering leveraging the federal loan office the Biden administration used to fund dozens of green energy projects to kickstart a behemoth $44 billion pipeline project that would transport natural gas across Alaska.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday that his agency may issue a federal loan guarantee for the project, noting its economic and national security importance. Such a move would mark an abrupt departure from the Biden Energy Department’s approach—Biden officials in the loan office dished out 53 green energy loans worth more than $100 billion for electric vehicle, solar panel, wind turbine, and green hydrogen projects.
“It’s possible the Loan Program Office plays a role at the start of the project to launch just the Alaska part of the pipeline. I think it’s very possible that would happen,” Wright told reporters on the sidelines of an event he, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin attended in the northern village of Deadhorse, Alaska, near the proposed starting point of the pipeline.
“There’s tremendous interest in the gas from here, and that’s all the project needs,” he said. “Once you have off-takers, the financing is not an issue.”
During the Biden administration, the Loan Programs Office’s lending power skyrocketed to more than $240 billion. By comparison, the first Trump administration largely left the office dormant, only approving a single loan for a Georgia nuclear power plant project.
Wright’s comments signal he is prepared to use the beefed-up loan office to pursue President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, rather than mirror the approach the first Trump administration took.
Wright also previously told the Free Beacon that he directed a review of Biden-era energy loans and suggested he could soon revoke some of those agreements, something that would free up dollars to pursue Trump’s priorities.
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Author: Mitch Kokai
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