Energy Secretary Chris Wright categorically denied he was blocking climate law money to renewable projects during a Wednesday budget hearing, while also shedding new details on when the department could cancel or deny funding going forward.
At the House Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on DOE’s budget request, Democratic lawmakers asked Wright withering questions about the status of money from Biden-era climate legislation. But despite the Democratic concern, Wright denied that any obligated funding was being withheld.
“We don’t have a single unpaid invoice at our department, not one,” Wright said. “We’ve paid our bills, all of our bills. We are reviewing existing projects, but we have canceled zero so far.”
Democratic committee leaders in both the House and Senate said in a letter this week that the Department of Energy was indiscriminately canceling projects and deliberately blocking approved climate law funding without the approval of Congress.
