By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has protected about 84%, or $96.7 billion in clean energy grants created by its signature climate law from any clawback by the next administration, a White House official said on Friday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The 84% of the grants from the Inflation Reduction Act have been “obligated”, meaning contracts have been signed between U.S. agencies and recipients. The outgoing administration hopes this will help to continue the deployment of clean energy even after Monday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic who has pledged to rescind all unspent IRA funds.
BY THE NUMBERS
Here are examples of programs that have been obligated. About 94% of Department of Energy funding for state energy efficiency rebate programs for home retrofits and appliances, or about $8.8 billion, has been obligated. A U.S. Department of Agriculture program to help electric co-ops to procure more clean energy has been 97% obligated, or about $9.45 billion. At the Environmental Protection Agency, some $38 billion has been obligated, with 100% in a greenhouse gas reduction fund obligated and about 94% of all of its IRA grant programs obligated.
Some $11 billion has been announced but not obligated. Much of that is for upcoming fiscal years and for USDA programs.
KEY QUOTES
“This is all big progress and ensures that these investments should actually flow to communities and recipients as intended,” Kristina Costa, a deputy assistant to Biden and director of the clean energy office at the White House, told Reuters.
Even though some $11 billion in funds are not obligated, the fact that they have been announced publicly “creates some political pressure to not rescind those commitments, particularly in areas where those programs are going to Republican states and districts in rural areas and otherwise,” Costa said.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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