Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that his department will return over $13 billion in unobligated funds for clean energy authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden.

The Department of Energy said in a press release on Wednesday that it is seeking to “return more than $13 billion in unobligated funds initially appropriated to advance the previous Administration’s wasteful Green New Scam agenda.” The IRA, passed by Democrats with no GOP help, provided hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy projects and programs. 

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At a press briefing in New York on Wednesday, Wright said that the department will return $13 billion initially earmarked to subsidize wind, solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. He escalated his criticism of electric vehicles, claiming that they have not contributed to decarbonization efforts.

“The Biden administration‘s expenditures on fighting climate change are measured in the thousands of dollars per American family. What did that deliver? Higher taxes, higher utility bills,” Wright said. 

“President Biden, when he was inaugurated, 82% of U.S. primary energy came from hydrocarbons,” Wright said. “Four years later, hundreds of billions of dollars later, 82% of U.S. primary energy came from hydrocarbons. So those are the math, those are the numbers.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, slashed billions of dollars in incentives for renewable energy. It also rescinded the unobligated funds of several clean energy programs. The DOE did not offer additional details regarding which funds would be returned.

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Wright was in New York as global leaders met at the United Nations General Assembly. The city was also hosting Climate Week. Wright’s announcement to return the funds follows Trump’s speech at the General Assembly on Tuesday, where he criticized efforts to address climate change and promote renewable energy.

“All green is all bankrupt,” Trump said, calling climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”