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Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office became a powerful force for funding clean energy projects, including factories. A Ford EV battery plant in Tennessee, a Qcells solar panel factory in Georgia, and Eos Energy’s battery factory in Pennsylvania — they’re among the 53 projects issued a total of more than $107 billion by Biden’s LPO.
The office finalized about half of those deals before President Donald Trump stepped in, according to a comprehensive list published by Canary Media last week. The rest remain stuck in conditional status.
But Trump’s new LPO head is reportedly searching for a way to nix these already-issued loans, generating deep — and consequential — uncertainty for the companies banking on that money.
Take battery manufacturer Kore Power as an example. The firm spent several years and millions of dollars trying to secure funding from the LPO for a planned $1.2 billion facility. In 2023, it paid off, and Kore Power landed an $850 million loan to build a Phoenix-area factory.
But the possibility of the LPO rescinding the loan contributed to Kore Power’s decision to cancel its factory plans, announced last week alongside news that its CEO is departing. The company is now searching for an existing factory to outfit to make batteries in hopes of cutting project costs, new CEO Jay Bellows told Canary Media’s Julian Spector.
Also at risk: Any clean energy manufacturing investment spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act, given the Trump administration’s ongoing pause on IRA funds and looming efforts to further dismantle the law. Beyond battery firms like Kore Power, U.S. solar manufacturers and wind industry suppliers have also suffered setbacks, per reporting from Canary’s Julian Spector and Clare Fieseler.
New data from Atlas Public Policy maps where these IRA-funded manufacturing projects are located, and as The New York Times notes, roughly 80% of them are in Republican congressional districts.
Two more big things
Trump pauses EV charger funding, leaving state projects uncertain
The Trump administration last week moved to halt the disbursal of funding for NEVI — the $5 billion program launched under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to build out EV chargers across the country. Echoing ongoing questions about Trump’s broader funding freeze, state leaders told The New York Times they’re unsure if the move applies only to unallocated money or if ongoing projects are at risk. Some states are already pausing charger construction projects out of fear they’ll lose funding, while others are pressing on.
Clean energy–essential metals are caught up in trade wars
