These KY energy projects may lose funding as Trump administration eyes more cuts
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- List targets roughly $460M in Kentucky clean energy grants and projects.
- Major recipients include Ascend Elements, Ford, Diageo and UK research.
- DOE says reviews ongoing; cuts align with Trump agenda to trim clean energy.
Kentucky’s energy projects could lose about $460 million in federal grants as the Trump administration considers more funding cuts.
An electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility and several energy-related research projects are on the funding chopping block, according to a list of potential cuts first reported by Semafor and now circulating around Capitol Hill.
The list is about a dozen pages long and includes hundreds of project grants totaling about $24 billion.
A $316 million grant for a Hopkinsville electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility being built by Ascend Elements is targeted on the list, and the company said it was notified Oct. 7 it had been terminated. The Massachusetts-based manufacturer announced in October 2022 plans to invest close to $1 billion to build its largest EV battery recycling and manufacturing facility in Christian County, creating 400 full-time jobs.
Ascend Elements CEO Linh Austin said in an email to the Herald-Leader any DOE decision regarding grants doesn’t change the company’s trajectory.
“We will replace the terminated grant with a balanced mix of private growth, equity, project finance, strategic offtake pre-payments, and non-U.S. incentives, including support we’ve been awarded in the EU,” Austin said. “Our business economics are not predicated on grants, but by Consumer Demand, Operational Excellence and our patented Hydro-to-Cathode technology.”
In April, Kentucky Public Radio reported construction had been paused on part of the facility , though it’s set to restart next year.
Also in April, Ascend Elements was named a defendant in a lawsuit over $138 million in unpaid construction bills. A month before that, the manufacturer and energy department agreed to cancel a separate $164 million federal grant related to the project.
Also targeted on the list is a $75 million grant for Diageo, the alcoholic beverage company, which planned to add batteries to its facility in Shelbyville to reduce carbon emissions.
That grant was terminated in May, as was the $72 million one for a carbon capture project at LG&E and KU’s Cane Run Generating Station just outside Louisville. It also appears on the longer list.
The $50 million grant supporting Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as it retrofits a Maysville factory to make high-efficiency heat pumps could also have its funding cut, according to the list.
Five projects through the University of Kentucky Research Foundation are on the list and could stand to lose almost $24 million altogether.
The largest of those grants, almost $7 million, is for a Pigman College of Engineering and Institute for Decarbonization and Energy Advancement project demonstrating the effectiveness of a carbon capture device that then puts the raw material into glass production, according to grant award documents.
The UK Research Foundation and a university spokesperson were not immediately available for comment.
Kentucky has been the recipient of several recent high-dollar economic development announcements related to clean energy. It has seemingly embraced multiple parts of the EV supply chain through incentives from the legislature and tax credits for consumers passed under Former President Joe Biden.
Gov. Andy Beshear is no stranger to securing frozen or canceled federal funds. Just this year, he’s joined multistate lawsuits to restore funding for AmeriCorps, K-12 schools and public health programs.
During his weekly Team Kentucky update, he said his office hadn’t gotten official word regarding the possibility of funding cuts.
“I’d be very disappointed if this is gonna move forward,” he said.
In a statement, Department of Energy Deputy Press Secretary Emery Washington said the department’s staff “have been unable to verify the lists we’ve seen so far.”
In an emailed statement to the Herald-Leader, the department’s chief spokesperson, Ben Dietderich, said no additional determinations have been made about funding aside from cuts already announced this year.
At the start of October, the Department of Energy terminated 321 financial packages totaling $7.56 billion for 223 projects, several of which are on the long list, according to E&E News. About two dozen other grants canceled earlier in the year also appear on the list.
“As Secretary (Chris) Wright made clear last week, the Department continues to conduct an individualized and thorough review of financial awards made by the previous administration,” Dietderich said.
The cuts so far this year, and the new list indicating more might be coming, match President Donald Trump’s agenda to cancel clean energy programs. Trump has often criticized renewable energy, especially the effort to reduce carbon emissions, as part of a “green energy scam.”
“On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Wright said in a statement when the department made its Oct. 2 cuts. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy.”
Most of the cuts this month yanked funding from Democratic states. Members of Congress in those states said in a letter to the department secretary that the decision was blatantly partisan and would harm jobs, weaken the grid and give foreign adversaries like China an edge.
The new, longer list includes grant projects in Republican states, too.
It also shows more billions of dollars could be cut for five hydrogen hubs authorized by Biden’s energy department and his infrastructure bill that allocated funding to the system that would have produced and transported clean energy across the country.
ARCH2, headquartered in West Virginia, is one of those hubs. It would have regional activity and support jobs in Kentucky, but it isn’t estimated to be in service until 2027 or 2028, according to the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2.
According to the list, a $28 million grant for Ford to explore alternative fuel sources and several grants totaling $565 million for General Motors could be canceled. Both automakers have assembly plants in Kentucky and employ thousands.
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