White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research

The Trump administration is to ask Congress for deep cuts, of 72 percent, to the Energy Department’s clean energy research and development programs, the Washington Post reports, citing “draft budget documents obtained by [the Post]”.

The paper says the cuts are likely to be reversed by Congress and that the Energy Department had asked for “more modest spending reductions for…[its] renewable and [energy] efficiency programs”.

Bloomberg also reports the news, citing “people familiar with the plans”.

The cuts would be steeper than those requested by the White House, but so far rejected by Congress, for the current fiscal year, the Post notes.

This current-year request had also included steep cuts, of around 75 percent to research into carbon capture and storage, a former US Energy Department official noted on Twitter, saying “arguably no admin[istration] has done more to damage prospects for ‘clean coal'”.