President Donald Trump could freeze or rescind up to $750 billion that his predecessor wanted to spend on clean energy initiatives, according to reporters who have tracked former President Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar spending plan.
“They spent trillions of dollars on things having to do with the ‘green new scam’ and that’s caused tremendous inflationary pressures,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
Jessie Blaeser, POLITICO’s senior data reporter, and Ben Storrow, a ClimateWire reporter, told attendees of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference that the Trump administration is already zeroing in on that climate funding. While Biden sought to spend more than $1 trillion to enhance America’s renewable energy sector and tackle climate change, Trump promised to “redirect” unspent billions to “more important” projects, such as roads, dams and bridges.
Institutions still waiting for funds announced by the Biden administration are now adjusting based on Trump’s energy agenda. The strategy now is to adopt the Trump administration’s talking points, such as bringing manufacturing to America, Storrow said.
“That’s probably a harder argument to make for a nonprofit that’s put up solar panels in a low income neighborhood,” Storrow said.
Blaeser and Storrow said such groups could potentially face challenges getting grant funding from the federal government, even if they had received assurance from the Biden administration.
Attendees at the SEJ conference indicated concern that the Department of Government Efficiency could take the lead on such cuts, which Blaeser said remains uncertain and something that she’s monitoring.
“I think that this is an overwhelming thing and everybody is living with this uncertainty,” Storrow said. “People in power don’t know what’s going on.”
Amelia Monroe is a junior at Arizona State University, and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona and the Arizona Media Association.
These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will Biden’s billions for climate initiatives survive Trump’s purge?