The U.S. has terminated awards for 24 clean energy projects doled out during the Biden era by the Office for Clean Energy Demonstrations, saying the projects were not economically viable and would not result in a positive return on investment or advance energy needs.

The awards mainly include funding for carbon capture and sequestration and decarbonization initiatives. The list includes a nearly $332 million award to Exxon Mobil Corp. to enable the use of hydrogen instead of natural gas for its Baytown Olefins Plant Carbon Reduction Project in Texas.

“While the previous administration failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said May 30 in a statement announcing the cuts. “Today, we are acting in the best interest of the American people by cancelling these 24 awards.”

At the time of the award announcement, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Exxon’s Baytown Olefins Plant Carbon Reduction Project would avoid an estimated 2.7 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually and roughly 200 tons per year of nitrogen oxide. The project is not part of Exxon’s massive planned blue hydrogen production facility, which is a different project and not on the list.

Exxon declined to comment on the award cancelation when contacted by Hart Energy.

Calpine’s carbon capture and storage project at its natural gas combined cycle heat and power plant in Baytown, which was awarded $270 million, was also on the list of canceled awards.

The largest awards canceled were for carbon capture projects at cement plants: a $500 million award to Heidelberg Materials in Indiana and a $500 million award to National Cement Co. of California in Lebec, California.

Earlier this year, California Resources Corp (CRC). announced an agreement between its carbon management business Carbon TerraVault (CTV) and National Cement for carbon management services for the first-of-its-kind initiative to produce carbon-neutral cement. At the time, CRC said CTV will develop transportation and sequestration solutions for up to 1 million metric tons per annum of CO2 emissions captured from National Cement’s Lebec plant in Kern County, California. Plans include transporting the captured CO2 and storing it in CTV’s underground storage reservoirs.

Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, called the cancelations a “major step backward in the nationwide deployment of carbon management technologies.” The nonpartisan coalition is comprised of over 100 companies, labor unions and conservation and environmental policy organizations.

“Further development and deployment of carbon management technologies is crucial to meeting America’s growing demand for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy,” Stolark said, after pointing out the projects has undergone a rigorous, months-long review process by technical experts at Department of Energy.

“To be clear, ensuring projects funded by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act move forward toward commercialization are necessary to demonstrate the technology across fossil fuel power generation and key industrial sectors, including natural gas-fired power generation, cement, and basic chemicals.”

The Energy Department said its decision was based on a review process, outlined in a secretarial memorandum called Ensuring Responsibility for Financial Assistance. Financial assistance is evaluated on a case-by-case basis to identify “waste of taxpayer dollars, protect America’s national security and advance President Trump’s commitment to unleash affordable, reliable and secure energy for the American people,” the DOE said.

The department is in the process of reviewing more than $15 billion in federal awards.

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