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Tag: United States Department of Energy

  • Trump administration to cancel $645 million worth of grants for climate-related projects in Minnesota

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    In the hours after the federal government shut down on Wednesday, the Trump administration announced it would cancel nearly $8 billion in climate projects in more than a dozen states, including Minnesota. 

    The number of grants impacted totals $645 million in Minnesota, according to a statement from Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith’s office. 

    Among the projects her office said were affected include $464 million to build new electrical transmission lines connecting Minnesota and other Midwest states, $50 million to upgrade an electrical transmission line between Minnesota and North Dakota, and $1.7 million for research to ensure solar projects save money.

    The U.S. Department of Energy provided WCCO a list of the funding recipients across all 16 states expected to see the cuts. Xcel Energy is among them. A spokesperson said the utility company is still evaluating the impact, but it did receive confirmation that a future iron-air battery plant to store renewable energy like solar and wind in Becker, Minnesota, had been canceled. That award totaled $70 million. 

    In an interview on CNN, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the decisions about where to slash the grants were made over the last few months, even though the announcement came Wednesday, the day the first government shutdown since 2018 began.

    “A team of seven or eight people have evaluated over 2,400 projects on business conditions and whether it makes sense for the American taxpayers or not,” Wright said. 

    The Minnesota Department of Commerce was also on the list. A spokeswoman said the agency did not get any official notice from the Department of Energy about the termination of funding, but that if it is true, it would “represent an unprecedented and politically motivated breach of federal law and funding norms.”

    “Without these investments, Minnesota could face higher energy prices, slower infrastructure development, and increased burdens on low- and middle-income households — all while demand for clean, affordable energy continues to grow,” a statement from the state’s commerce department said.

    U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, the Republican majority whip who represents Minnesota’s Sixth District, told reporters Friday that the administration has to make tough decisions during the government shutdown and blamed Democrats for letting it happen. 

    The GOP-led House approved a continuing resolution in September to keep funding at current levels. But both parties are at an impasse over a funding measure in the Senate, where there is a 60-vote threshold to move forward. Republicans have 53 votes in the chamber.

    Emmer suggested the funding could be restored when the shutdown ends.

    “They’re going to have to put the American people first. If they do that, I think Minnesotans will be pleased, and a lot of these projects will be back on the board,” he said. 

    All of the states seeing funding rescinded, including Minnesota, were states won by Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

    Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called it “outrageous.”

    “This whole idea that they see states as Democrats and Republicans, or they see areas as red or blue, is simply the most egregious violation of their oath. You have a responsibility to give your best for people who vote against you,” Walz said Thursday.

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    Caroline Cummings

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  • U.S. government takes stake in lithium mining company in Nevada

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    The U.S. government is taking stake in yet another company, and this time it’s a mining company. Lithium Americas is currently developing one of the world’s largest lithium mines in northern Nevada. CBS News reporter Andres Gutierrez has more.

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  • Energy Department to return $13 billion in unused climate funds to taxpayers

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    The Department of Energy says it will return more than $13 billion in unobligated funds once set aside for the Biden administration’s climate agenda, calling it “wasteful spending.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright joins “CBS Mornings Plus.”

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  • The cost to heat your home this winter is expected to increase. See how much.

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    Americans will dish out more money to heat their homes this winter as electricity and natural gas costs continue to soar.

    That’s according to a new study from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) which predicts that Americans will see their energy bill rise 7.6% to $976 on average this cold weather season. Those who rely on natural gas to heat their home could see an 8.4% jump in their bill, while those who use electricity could see a 10.2% increase. 

    While electricity prices vary by state, overall the cost is rising. In August, prices increased by 6.2% compared with the same month last year, according to the latest inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Those costs will continue to escalate as much as 18% in the next few years, according to a May report from The U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

    Natural gas prices are up 13.8% from last year, far outpacing the rate of inflation, which rose 2.9% in August on an annual basis.

    Not all Americans will see an increase in their winter energy bills. Heating oil and propane users — roughly only 10% of U.S. households — could see their energy bills decrease by 4% and 5% respectively. 

    The overall rising home-heating costs follow greater summer air-conditioning use, amid warmer temperatures. “The average summer household electricity bill reached an estimated $776 in 2025, the highest in at least 12 years compounding household strain,” the report states. 

    “We had a period of relatively stable electric bills and then last year electricity went up twice the rate of inflation,” Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, told CBS MoneyWatch.

    As a result, more American households are falling behind on their energy bills. 

    Since Dec. 31, 2023, energy arrearages — unpaid energy bills that homeowners owe to their utility company — have risen by about 31%, from approximately $17.5 billion to $23.0 billion by June 30, 2025, NEADA said in its report.

    The surge in energy arrearages comes as Americans are carrying record amounts of debt. With inflation continuing to ramp up the cost of daily living, ahead of wages, total household debt reached $18.39 trillion in the second quarter of 2025, with unpaid credit card balances exceeding $1.21 trillion.

    Why are energy prices rising?

    The main factors driving up energy prices is the ongoing high cost of maintaining and upgrading the grid, along with rising natural gas prices and increasing electricity demand from data centers according to the NEADA report.

    “As demand goes up and supply is not matching that, prices are going to go up,” Abe Scarr, director of the Energy and Utilities Program at the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), told CBS MoneyWatch 

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also created volatility in energy prices, government data shows.

    So far this year, approximately 60 utility companies have either increased electricity and gas prices or proposed further increases, according to the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. With more rate hikes on the horizon, American households will have to try to stretch their income even further.

    “Families just finished paying their high electric bills for the summer, and now they’re looking at high bills for the winter,” Wolfe said.

    How to lower your utility bills

    As winter approaches, what can Americans do to lower their utility bill?

    Scarr suggests that people check with their utility companies, which often offer incentive programs to help customers implement cost-saving measures. Offerings vary by utility, but many companies provide free home energy assessments and discounts for people who want to insulate their homes. 

    For those interested in fortifying the envelope of their home to minimize heat loss, options include hiring a contractor for a professional retrofit or, for straightforward insulation projects, DIY tips, he said.

    When it comes to general energy conservation, experts suggest unplugging small appliances or electronics when you’re not using them. While it might seem obvious, people can also turn down the temperature in the home a few degrees to save money, said Scarr.

    The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded initiative with a network of state-run programs, is another resource. LIHEAP provides financial assistance to help eligible low-income households cover energy costs.

    Mary Cunningham

    Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.

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  • Energy prices could be election issue as voters see jump in utility bills

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    A July 11 post in a Hoboken, New Jersey, parenting group on Facebook pointed to a frustrating trend: “Our utility bill is more than double what it was last month. … Anything we can do about it?” The post had several dozen replies and most of the commenters said their home utility bills had also risen dramatically. 

    On the campaign trail a year ago, President Trump vowed, “Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months — at a maximum, 18 months,” but this year has seen energy prices rising in several states. Residents and governors in five East Coast states are blaming electric supplier, PJM Interconnection. The company is the largest grid operator in the U.S., serving 13 states and 65 million customers. 

    In New Jersey, energy prices increased on June 1, causing a 17-20% jump in residential customers’utility bills. The utility company PSE&G told its New Jersey customers they should expect to see a higher monthly bill of about $183 for the average customer, an increase of $27. 

    PSE&G attributed the price hike to “an increase in energy demand combined with the need for new power generation,” which it said “has driven higher supply prices.” As a utility, PSE&G pointed out that it doesn’t earn a profit on the electric supply, so “these costs are passed through directly to customers.”

    PJM says it is experiencing a rapid increase in energy demand, driven by the power requirements of artificial intelligence, data centers, electrification and a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing. In its latest forecast, PJM forecast a growth in energy demand of 5% over the next 10 years.

    “We don’t have enough newer, more reliable energy sources,” said Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonpartisan think tank. 

    Ambrose says that renewable sources like wind, solar, and battery are the cheapest and fastest forms of energy to bring online and faults PJM for its reluctance to bring clean energy into the grid: “PJM is also keeping older coal gas plants running, even if they are uneconomical and more expensive.”

    But in an op-ed in NJ Spotlight News, the company blamed a shortfall of energy on “state and federal decarbonization policies and some economic pressures” for closing fossil fuel-based power plants in New Jersey. PJM also said it has a queue of 63 gigawatts of projects — enough to power more than 47 million homes — waiting to be connected by 2026, and an “overwhelming majority” of those projects are renewables.

    Rising utility bills likely an issue in New Jersey governor’s race 

    Energy Secretary Chris Wright is starting to worry that high energy prices could hurt Republicans at the ballot box. In a recent interview with Politico, he blamed Democratic policies for “pushing prices up right now,” but conceded the political reality that Republicans may suffer in the next elections. 

    “Who’s going to get blamed for it? We’re going to get blamed because we’re in office,” he said. 

    New Jersey is poised to be among the first to test the issue in the governor’s race this November. 

    “Affordability is the number one issue in this race, and rising energy prices are also at the top of everyone’s mind,” Ambrose told CBS News.

    Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, in July released a statement accusing PJM of “mismanagement” of the grid: “PJM has refused to plug clean, cheap power like solar into the grid, while giving preference to coal and oil.” 

    And earlier this month, her opponent, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, wrote in a post on X about “Rebecca in Highland Park,” whose electric bill he said had tripled, “to more than $1000.” 

    “Why? Because Trenton Democrats, with the approval of my opponent Mikie Sherrill, shut down six electricity generation plants around the state, stopped burning natural gas, and didn’t expand our nuclear capabilities in South Jersey,” Ciattarelli said.

    “We can look at how folks are going to vote in this upcoming election, as a reflection on how they’re feeling about the country at large,” says Ambrose, “This affordability problem is not going away.”

    A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll earlier this month found that 26% of voters blame the utility companies for price hikes, 19% blame Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, and 10% say that energy producers are at fault. Murphy is not running for reelection due to term limits.

    “Utility bills directly impact elections,” says Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, a D.C.-based energy consultancy firm. Gramlich pointed to the most infamous example of this, the California recall election in 2003, prompted in large part by the state’s energy crisis. It cost Democrat Gray Davis the governorship and handed it to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

    Gramlich indicated he expects energy prices to remain high for the foreseeable future, predicting that “two years from now, we’re going to see a lot more policy discussion about it.”

    Tracy J. Wholf

    Tracy J. Wholf is a senior coordinating producer of climate and environmental coverage for CBS News and Stations, based in New York.

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  • 2nd nuclear fusion breakthrough could

    2nd nuclear fusion breakthrough could

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    2nd nuclear fusion breakthrough could “pave way for future of clean power” – CBS News


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    In December 2022, California scientists achieved a major breakthrough — a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than was used to create it. Scientists have done it again and this time their results produced even more energy. Professor Peter Hosemann, chair of nuclear and mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, joins CBS News to discuss the implications of this accomplishment.

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  • Incandescent light bulb ban takes effect in environment-saving switch to LEDs

    Incandescent light bulb ban takes effect in environment-saving switch to LEDs

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    A federal rule that took effect on Tuesday will largely consign one of the world’s great inventions — the incandescent light bulb — to the technological dustbin.

    The rule from the U.S. Department of Energy bans the production and sale of traditional light bulbs in the U.S., encouraging consumers to switch to newer, more efficient LED lights. 

    Using LEDs can help conserve both the environment and consumers’ money, according to the agency. American households could save roughly $100 a year, or a total of $3 billion, by completely phasing out incandescent bulbs in their homes, the DOE’s projections show. The switch could also reduce carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over 30 years, the Department of Energy said in a statement after passing the rule last spring. 

    LEDs outshine on price and durability

    LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are lighting products that pass an electrical current through a microchip, which illuminates tiny diodes, resulting in a visible light, according to government-backed electronics-rating organization Energy Star. LEDs are 90% more efficient than incandescent light bulbs, the Department of Energy says on its website. They also can last up to 25-times longer than traditional light bulbs.

    Those features could translate into major savings for consumers who make the switch to LEDs. The average American household spends more than $4,400 a year on utility bills, with electricity accounting for 23% of that bill, according to data from moving company Move.org.  In addition, roughly a third of American households neglected food- and medicine-related expenses to pay their electricity bills as energy inflation sent energy costs skyrocketing, a 2022 study from Lending Tree shows.

    For now, however LEDs account for less than half of lighting products in American households, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey shows. 


    Electricity bills expected to go up this summer

    04:50

    Pushback against LEDs

    While LEDs have advantages over Thomas Edison’s revolutionary design, they haven’t completely snuffed out the conventional bulb. Some consumers, like Tom Scocca, an editor who has written about LEDs, argue that the energy-efficient fixtures can’t replace incandescent lights because they tend to lose their color and brightness over the years and aren’t quite compatible with dimmer switches.  

    “There is a world, almost within reach, in which LED lighting could be aesthetically fabulous,” Scocca wrote in an article for NY Magazine. “But right now, it’s one more thing that overpromises and underdelivers.” 

    Former President Donald Trump, among others, famously criticized LEDs. “The bulb that we’re being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, I always look orange,” he said in 2019. 

    Still, usage of LEDs is on the rise. The number of households using LEDs as their main lighting source increased from 4% in 2015 to 47% in 2020, according to the EIA. 

    The market for LEDs in the U.S. is estimated at $11.6 billion in 2023 and projected to grow to $18.5 billion by 2028, data from market research consulting firm Mordor Intelligence shows.  

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  • Major automakers to build new nationwide electric vehicle charging network

    Major automakers to build new nationwide electric vehicle charging network

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    Seven of the world’s largest automakers said Wednesday that they’re working together to build a new nationwide network of 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations, an effort to stoke already growing consumer demand for EVs.

    BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes and Stellantis said the first batch of their “high-powered charging” stations will be available next summer. EV owners have long complained about a shortage of places to charge their vehicle. The automakers said they hope the stations will “make zero-emission driving even more attractive for millions of customers.”

    The charging system would be public and open to all electric vehicle owners and have connectors for both Tesla’s North American Charging Standard plugs as well as the Combined Charging System plugs used by other automakers.

    Motorists remain concerned about finding a charging station, while also having question about electric cars’ range and how long it takes to reach full power, auto industry experts have told CBS MoneyWatch. Automakers will need to pay as much attention to adding chargers as they have to lowering prices, Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, said this week.

    The car manufacturers wouldn’t disclose financial details of the network or how long it will take to build all 30,000 stations. Automakers told the Associated Press that they will “work as equals to ensure the success of the joint venture.” 

    There are currently just under 8,700 direct-current, fast-charging stations in the U.S. and Canada, with nearly 36,000 charging plugs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Tesla, by far the market leader ins EVs, accounts for 2,050 of the stations across the U.S. and Canada. The new network is expected to have 10 to 20 charging plugs per station.


    Experts worry about heavy electric vehicles’ safety

    02:32

    The network is likely to boost electric vehicle sales in North America by helping ease drive concerns about long-distance travel, said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with S&P Global Mobility.

    “It’s stopping them from even exploring what EV life is like,” she said. The announcement of the network “is giving them confidence that this is going to work out.”

    Bloomberg News Detroit Bureau Chief David Welch told CBS News that the automakers’ goals of selling more EVs are directly tied to how many chargers are available for drivers. 

    “The car companies have realized that if they’re going to get people to buy EVs, they really have to build up a network of chargers very aggressively, especially on the highways,” he said. “The big holdup for everyone buying an EV is they’re afraid they’ll be out on a road trip and they’ll run out of juice and be strained somewhere.”

    In their statement, the automakers said they would use renewable energy as much as possible to power the chargers, and they will be in convenient locations with canopies and amenities such as restrooms, food service and stores.

    In the U.S., consumers bought 557,000 electric cars in the first half of the year, accounting for 7.2% of all new vehicle sales. Most industry analysts predict continued growth in EV sales for the next decade or more.

    —The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Khristopher J. Brooks

    Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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