US President Donald Trump's administration on Friday proposed cutting billions of dollars in federal funding next year for projects including renewable energy and electric vehicle chargers, and gutting programs aimed at curbing climate change.
The proposal to Congress was part of a wider request to cut $163 billion in 2026 federal spending, slashing more than a fifth of non-military spending.
The White House said the energy budget proposal cancels more than $15 billion in carbon capture and renewable energy funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law that former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed in 2021. It also proposes to cancel $6 billion from that law for EV chargers.
"The Biden Administration spent more than three years implementing these programmes but built only a small number of chargers because it prioritised over-regulating and 'climate justice' goals," the White House said. "EV chargers should be built just like gas stations: with private sector resources disciplined by market forces."
The plan reorients Energy Department funding toward research and development of technologies that could produce an abundance of oil, gas, coal and critical minerals, nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuels, the White House said without further details.
The budget is meant to lay out an administration's policies, and what lawmakers ultimately adopt often differs from the White House request. It was not immediately clear how Congress would agree to cut funding approved in bipartisan law that is popular in many Republican districts.
The plan would cut $80 million in Interior Department renewable energy programs including offshore wind energy projects.
The budget, if passed, would have big impacts on farmers. Cuts to the US Department of Agriculture budget would total more than $4.5 billion, with the largest cuts from conservation programs that pay farmers to remove land from crop production, rural development programs for water and housing, and research grants.
"Trump wants to rip away funding to safeguard Americans' health, protect our environment, and to help rural communities and our farmers thrive," said Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee.
Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said it would be "catastrophic" if Congress enacts the budget. "The United States will no longer be in the global race for R&D leadership - we will have lost it."
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