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The Department of Energy has left the recipients of billions in obligated funds for climate projects in limbo since Trump took office. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the agency was “reviewing” the awards in May. He testified in Congress that his office would make a decision about many of them by the end of the summer, but this week’s terminations — amid the government shutdown — are the first announcement the agency has made since an initial batch of cuts at the end of May.
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it is putting $18 billion in funding for New York City transit projects on hold while it investigates violations of a rule barring diversity considerations in hiring that the Department of Transportation published on Tuesday. “The timing is, shall we say, noteworthy,” my colleague Matthew Zeitlin wrote on Wednesday, “not least because the Democrats’ two top congressional negotiators — Representative Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer — are both from New York.” In a statement, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy blamed those two lawmakers for the shutdown, lamenting that thanks to them, “USDOT’s review of New York’s unconstitutional practices will take more time.”
Blackrock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners, an investment fund, is in talks to buy energy developer AES for more than $38 billion in “what would be one of the largest infrastructure takeovers of all time,” according to the Financial Times. AES owns utilities in Ohio and Indiana in addition to owning both conventional and renewable energy generation projects across the globe. The company is also the top supplier of renewable energy to corporate buyers in the world. AES stock jumped nearly 17% on Wednesday on the news.
A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that residential customers in seven states that are part of the PJM Interconnection, an electricity market that covers the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, are paying nearly $4.4 billion for transmission upgrades intended to deliver electricity to data centers. The finding is not a big surprise — PJM’s own Market Monitor has acknowledged that data center load growth is the primary factor driving up rates. But the report specifically analyzes the amount the whole ratebase is shelling out for transmission projects that only benefit a single customer. It recommends that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission create a new customer class for such customers and require them to shoulder the cost alone.
Trump has slashed millions in grants for climate science research and plans to cut the federal government’s climate science funding and staff dramatically in next year’s budget. Stepping in to replace some of that lost cash is Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropy founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt announced Thursday that it’s committing up to $45 million over five years for research to advance understanding of some of the least-studied parts of the global carbon cycle. For example, one project will measure how much carbon dioxide the Southern Ocean absorbs from the atmosphere with the help of robotic sailboats that can collect data year-round, including during times when it’s too dangerous for research ships to operate.
The 2026 Ioniq 5 Limited. Image courtesy of Hyundai
Hyundai is cutting the price tag on its 2026 Ioniq 5 by nearly $10,000, and will continue to offer $7,500 off the 2025 model — equivalent to the now-expired federal tax credit. The 2026 Ioniq 5 base model will start at just $35,000, making it one of the cheapest EVs available in the U.S.
Current conditions: Tropical Storm Imelda is set to gain intensity this week and whip the southeastern U.S. with soaking rain and storm surge • Frigid night air is forecast across northern New England • Typhoon Bualoi is flooding broad swaths of Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos.
The federal government is closed.Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
