Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Leon Neal
Topics: Donald Trump, Climate Change, Politics, US News, Environment
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Climate Change, Politics, US News, Environment
The Trump administration is canceling almost $8 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states.
The affected states just so happen to have voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
The move comes as Donald Trump threatens deep cuts in his fight with congressional Democrats over the government shutdown.
The shutdown is down to Republicans and Democrats not being able to agree on passing a bill funding government services into October and onwards. As a result, non-essential functions of government have been frozen as these agencies are dependent on funding being approved in Congress. The shutdown came into force on Wednesday (October 1) and, as of October 3, it remains closed.
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One government agency that is still running is The Energy Department, and in a new statement in issued in recent days, it was announced that 223 clean energy projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable.
Officials did not provide details about which projects are being cut, but they said funding came from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and other Energy Department bureaux.
The cuts are likely to affect battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, upgrades to the electric grid and carbon-capture efforts, among many others, according to the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defence Council.
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The news of the government cutting back on clean energy projects comes as it was recently revealed that Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California will be shut down in the not-so-distant future.
The solar farm cost an eye-watering $2.2 billion to build but it will be switched off for good next year after failing to meet its energy targets.
$1.6 billion of the money came from then-President Barack Obama's Department of Energy.
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In light of the solar farm closing its doors years earlier than planned, many people have branded the project as a waste of taxpayer money.
"It another left-wing taxpayer-funded boondoggle turns out to be a useless waste of money," somebody fumed online.
A second added: "Both a waste of money and an environmental disaster that will take decades to clean up."
Away from the money, other critics said the farm was doing more harm than good for the environment, noting that birds would fly into the direct sunlight and 'burst into flames', said Science Alert in 2016. Reportedly, as many as 6,000 birds died each year.