Essay by Eric Worrall
But two companies have vowed to push forward anyway.
Trump continues clean energy assault with cancellation of $700 million in battery and manufacturing grants
Joshua S Hill
Oct 23, 2025United States president Donald Trump’s continued assault on clean energy has claimed a raft of new victims, including $US700 million in battery and manufacturing awards and continued uncertainty in the offshore wind sector.
Despite clean energy’s dominance in the United States’ new electrical generating capacity – not to mention renewable energy overtaking coal generation in the global electricity mix for the first time this year – Donald Trump and his administration continue to wreak havoc on the country’s clean energy industry, following through on years of anti-climate change, anti-renewable rhetoric and posturing.
The latest to feel the brunt of the administration’s wholesale attack on clean energy are a handful of battery manufacturing companies.
…
That both American Battery Technology Co. and Ascend Elements are able and planning to proceed regardless of the lack of DoE funding speaks volumes about the voracity of the DoE’s claims.
Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/trump-continues-clean-energy-assault-with-cancellation-of-700-million-in-battery-and-manufacturing-grants/
…
I don’t see why author Joshua Hill is taking such a negative view of Trump’s actions.
Cancelling the grants pruned away the companies which weren’t confident in their business plan, and left the two companies which believe their battery investments will pay off.
Bringing sound economics to the renewable industry, or at least letting private investors carry the entire risk of green speculation, sure sounds like a win for US taxpayers.
The first steam engines and in fact almost all engines had no government ‘grants’ and only private investors or money from the pockets of the inventor.