By Timothy Gardner, Valerie Volcovici and Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. 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 programs, but built only a small number of chargers because it prioritized 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. Congress would likely have to pass legislation such as rescissions or amendments.
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 U.S. 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. Murray said Trump’s plan was “very light on details.”
It would eliminate the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, Food for Progress and Food for Peace, three programs that send U.S. commodities abroad as food aid. It adds about $100 million for food safety inspection at meat plants and rural rental assistance.
For the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump, a Republican, called for a nearly 55% cut compared to its enacted 2025 budget, reflecting his focus on slashing regulations and eliminating grants for programs and research on topics like climate change.
Among cuts to EPA’s budget are $235 million to the Office of Research and Development, leaving it with $281 million to do research required by Congress and eliminating work to advance environmental justice.
The budget also slashes $1.3 billion in grants issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which it said focused on “climate-dominated research” not aligned with the administration’s policies. It also slashes $209 million for some satellites and cancels contracts “for instruments designed primarily for unnecessary climate measurements rather than weather observations.”
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.”
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Leah Douglas, Valerie Volcovici and Nichola Groom; Editing by Richard Chang)
