By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has awarded more than $100 billion in subsidies created by its signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, a senior administration official said.
The administration hopes the spending milestone will help continue the deployment of clean energy even after President-elect Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic who has pledged to revoke all unused IRA funds, takes office.
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“If funds are obligated, they are protected,” the official told Reuters. “They are subject to the terms of the contract, so when those contracts are signed and executed, it becomes more a matter of contract law than a matter of politics.”
The official said the administration is on track to exceed its goal of “committing” more than 80% of IRA grant funding by the end of Biden’s term next month.
The IRA also provides tax breaks for a decade of clean energy projects, including wind and solar installations, and ending these subsidies would likely require an act of Congress.
The IRA’s grants and subsidies have funneled billions of dollars into renewable energy projects across the country, with Republican-led states getting the bulk of the benefits.
In August, eighteen Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson asking him not to undermine the law’s incentives because it would jeopardize major investments.
Some of Trump’s close allies have also benefited from the IRA, particularly its provisions boosting carbon capture and storage as well as clean hydrogen.
Among the recent awards that pushed grant funding past the $100 billion mark are a $119 million contract issued by the General Services Administration to electrify five federal buildings in the D.C. region; $147 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for science and data collection to account for the effects of climate change on fisheries; and another $256 million in grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
