US DOE, Interior seek deep cuts for clean energy under White House FY 2026 budget

The Trump administration would make deep cuts to federal renewable-energy programs and scientific research under its proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, which calls for reducing annual nondefense spending by $163 billion, or 23%, a newly released budget blueprint showed.

Among a swath of cuts under the spending plan, the Department of Energy proposed to reduce funding for its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by more than $2.5 billion, amounting to a 74% reduction compared to FY 2025 levels. Programs within the US Department of Interior that support renewable energy, such as offshore wind generation, would be eliminated.

The White House Office of Management and Budget published the details late May 30, days after Democratic appropriators noted the request would be the latest in US history. The OMB shared a partial budget blueprint with congressional appropriators in early May.

"Remarkably, it is not even complete, because it still lacks all manner of essential details," US Senator Patty Murray, Democrat-Washington, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

With 60 votes required to advance appropriations bills in the Senate, Murray warned that the president's budget request "is dead on arrival in Congress as long as I have anything to say about it."

In addition to a 1,224-page budget appendix released by the OMB, some individual agencies published briefs on how they would prioritize spending under President Donald Trump's budget proposal.

The White House said in a brief overview document that the discretionary spending cuts would achieve savings by "reducing or eliminating programs found to be woke and weaponized against ordinary working Americans, wasteful, or best left to the states and localities to provide."

In contrast to cuts to some agencies, annual defense spending would rise by 13% to $1.01 trillion, and the Department of Homeland Security's annual budget would jump by 65% in FY 2026 — increases that assume the passage of a party-line GOP budget reconciliation bill working its way through Congress.

The administration is also proposing deep spending cuts in science research programs across agencies DOE and Interior. The reductions include $255.3 million and 358 jobs from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Science and Technology program and the elimination of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's entire research arm.

To overcome the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold, 10 Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to pass a continuing resolution in March that largely maintained FY 2024 appropriations levels for FY 2025. Lawmakers will need to pass another stopgap measure to keep the government open if Congress fails to reach a FY 2026 spending compromise by Sept. 30.

DOE looks to ax renewable energy, grid funding

Under the DOE's budget proposal, EERE funding to support solar, wind and renewable energy grid integration would be zeroed out. Annual funding for geothermal energy, which Energy Secretary Chris Wright has championed, would increase from $118 million to $150 million.

Overall, the EERE's annual budget for renewable energy programs would shrink from $795 million to $240 million.

"This budget request focuses on cost efficiencies and fiscal constraint and focuses EERE resources on the energy technologies that are best positioned to support American Energy Dominance — reliable, firm power that Americans can depend on and unleashing American energy innovation," the DOE said in its brief.

The DOE's budget request includes no mention of the Grid Deployment Office, which was established under the Biden administration. A line item titled "grid deployment" foresees annual funding levels falling from $60 million to $15 million, or 75%. Grid deployment activities would be reorganized under the DOE's Office of Electricity, which would also receive a 31% annual budget cut.

The DOE proposed to drop "carbon management" from its Office of Fossil Energy's title and cut funding for carbon transportation and storage and point-source capture by more than half. Funding for mineral production and processing technologies would grow from $70 million to $100 million.

The proposal would cut annual funding for DOE advanced nuclear reactor demonstration programs from $315 million to about $155 million. Meanwhile, the DOE is seeking $750 million in credit subsidy funding to support financing for small modular reactors and advanced nuclear reactors through its Loan Programs Office.

"The most efficient tool that the Department of Energy has to help the nuclear industry is the Loan Programs Office," Wright said during a May 21 Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. "It's not direct grant dollars."

The DOE also proposed to rescind nearly $2.3 billion in unobligated credit subsidies appropriated for its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The program "has primarily subsidized the financing of electric vehicle and related components manufacturing projects" in a manner inconsistent with Trump's executive order on "unleashing" American energy, the DOE said.

Interior seeks to boost oil and gas development

The Interior Department's FY 2026 budget request includes $112.7 million for the Bureau of Land Management's onshore oil and gas management program — a 10% annual increase above appropriated levels.

BLM renewable energy activities would receive zero funding after nearly $40 million was appropriated in FY 2024. As of December 2024, the BLM had permitted 33 GW of renewable energy capacity on public lands, exceeding the Biden administration's previous goal of 25 GW by 2025.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, another subagency within Interior, would see its total annual budget fall from $211 million to $148 million.

The budget removes support for BOEM's renewable energy program and technologies "that facilitate unreliable, intermittent energy," Interior said in its brief. BOEM funding to support offshore wind development would be eliminated.

Interior noted that BOEM is currently developing its 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, citing a recent finding that revealed that at least 23% more recoverable oil and gas exists in the Gulf of Mexico. BLM is also working to expand oil and gas exploration and development opportunities in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Some appropriators already voiced opposition to the administration's proposed spending priorities.

More than 19 million acres of federal land leased for oil and gas exploration and development currently sit idle, Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said during a May 21 appropriations hearing.

"You don't have an all-of-the-above energy policy, you have a fossils-above-all policy," Merkley said.

EPA proposes $122 million cut to clean air programs

In all, the EPA proposes to cut 1,274 full-time positions and 54% of the agency's budget in the next fiscal year. The cost savings would be achieved with major cuts from the agency's large Science and Technology and Environmental and Management programs, including its air quality work.

"The budget reduces support for areas that deviate from EPA's core mission and advances common-sense deregulations that will drive the economy forward and make it more affordable to own a car, heat a home, operate a business and bring manufacturing back to local communities," the agency wrote in its budget brief.

Specifically, clean air programs would see a $122 million cut, or a 41% reduction from 2025 levels.

The EPA is also proposing to focus less on oversight. The agency's proposal would eliminate all funding for its independent watchdog, the Office of Inspector General, while cutting nearly $184 million from its enforcement program — a 49% reduction from its current budget.