The Trump Administration announced Wednesday a historic multi-billion dollar loan meant to expand and upgrade American energy grids in two states.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) press release stated the $26.5 billion package, funded by the Working Families Tax Cut law, will support two wholly owned subsidiaries of Southern Company, an electric utility, and estimated that the DOE’s loan would save Americans $7 billion in energy costs. The DOE stated the loan would create thousands of jobs and increase grid reliability in Alabama and Georgia.
“Thanks to President Trump and the Working Families Tax Cut, the Energy Department is lowering energy costs and ensuring the American people have access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy for decades to come,” said US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in the press release. “The President has been clear: America must reverse the energy subtraction agenda of past administrations and add more reliable power generation to our electrical grid.”
The DOE plans for the loans to fund development of over 16 gigawatts (GW) of power to the electrical grids. The DOE cites gas power, nuclear improved by upgrade licenses, hydro power modernization, and battery energy storage systems to be energy sources the DOE will utilize to expand the electrical grid’s power.
“We stopped the closure of 17 gigawatts of coal capacity,” said Wright to reporters Wednesday. “If President Trump hadn’t won the election, whatever new addition, you’d have to start with a minus 17 in front of it.”
The DOE stated the loans are estimated to reduce Southern Company’s interest costs by $300 million a year, which is expected to lower consumers’ energy bills.
In response to a question from the Daily Caller News Foundation concerning partnerships with other states, DOE Director of Energy Dominance Finance Greg Beard said “what we’re looking for is partners, business partners that are competent and good at what they do, will deploy their own capital and just partner with them if their overriding agenda is to hold flat or drive utility prices and enable growth in the capacity of the grid so more industries can locate in those states or those regions, whether its AI or modern manufacturing.”
Beard said the DOE cannot undertake green energy projects which would create a less reliable grid and increased energy costs as seen in the Biden administration.
“This [loan package] allows data center development, this allows re-shoring of American manufacturing, and coincident with this expansion to those electricity grids is a multi-year freezing of the electricity rates in Georgia and in Alabama,” said Beard to reporters Wednesday. “We stopped the closure of 17 gigawatts of coal capacity. If President Trump hadn’t won the election, whatever new addition, you’d have to start with a minus 17 in front of it.”
The loan package is another DOE energy project to expand American energy through collaboration between public and private institutions in line with President Donald Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order. The DOE sent a request for information in January requesting state input about collaborating with the federal government and the private sector to further nuclear power and research in the U.S.
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