The Biden administration has set an ambitious goal to secure the long-term deployment of clean energy technologies, particularly through the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The administration hopes that reaching a key spending milestone obligating over $100 billion in funding will help to continue the transition to renewable energy sources, even in the face of challenges that could arise once President-elect Donald Trump, a known climate change skeptic, takes office. Trump has expressed intentions to rescind all unspent IRA funds, which could significantly impact clean energy projects. However, administration officials remain confident that once funds are “obligated,” they are legally protected.
As one official pointed out, once the government signs and executes contracts, those funds become a matter of contract law, not politics. This means that even if a future administration tries to cut or cancel the funding, the signed contracts would remain intact. With this strategy, the Biden administration aims to ensure that, regardless of political shifts, clean energy projects funded by the IRA continue to move forward.
The administration is also on track to meet or even exceed its goal of obligating over 80% of IRA grant funding by the end of Biden’s term in January. This goal has been part of a broader strategy to accelerate clean energy adoption, leveraging a decade’s worth of tax incentives to drive investments in technologies like wind, solar, and carbon capture. Ending these subsidies would likely require a new law passed by Congress, making it more difficult for a future administration to unwind the progress made under the IRA.
The IRA has already proven to be a powerful driver of renewable energy investment, funneling billions of dollars into projects across the country. Interestingly, even Republican-led states, which often oppose Democratic climate policies, have received substantial benefits from the IRA’s provisions. These states have been recipients of a significant portion of the funding, especially for initiatives like clean hydrogen and carbon capture technologies, which have received support from some of Trump’s allies.
In fact, the IRA’s impact has extended beyond just Democratic-leaning areas. In August, 18 Republican House members wrote to newly appointed Speaker Mike Johnson urging him not to dismantle the IRA’s incentives, stressing that doing so would threaten crucial investments in renewable energy. Some of Trump’s close associates have also directly benefited from the IRA, particularly through initiatives designed to advance carbon capture and sequestration technologies, as well as clean hydrogen projects.
Among the latest significant grants that contributed to surpassing the $100 billion funding milestone are a $119 million contract awarded by the General Services Administration to electrify five federal buildings in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as a $147 million grant to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for climate change research and fisheries data collection. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allocated $256 million in Rural Energy for America Program grants and loans, which are expected to support rural clean energy initiatives. These funding efforts are crucial in the broader push to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to a cleaner energy future.
