Kaptur Condemns $3.7 Billion In DOE Cuts To American Manufacturing Nationwide

“The abrupt termination of $3.7 Billion in clean energy investment is shortsighted and malicious. This decision will raise energy costs for American families and undermine our nation's competitive edge. In Northwest Ohio, it endangers jobs, and undermines manufacturing in our critical glass industry, while empowering China and our global competitors," said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09). "Nationwide, DOE is not only raising the cost of energy in Red Districts and Blue Districts — we're ceding ground to global competitors racing ahead in innovation and energy efficiency. This decision undercuts American innovation, discourages private-sector investment, and harms workers like the ones I represent who are counting on these projects for jobs and economic revitalization. The American people deserve leadership that meets the moment — not one that backs away from the challenge of a clean, affordable energy future. If the Trump Administration was looking to give Communist China everything they wanted, they are well on their way.”

RANKING MEMBER MARCY KAPTUR:

So one of the things I have to ask about is my own district. I don't understand why there was a project that was to be awarded to a glass company. And for some reason, it was pulled or it's sitting somewhere over there, and it has caused all kinds of problems for the company. You're a businessman. You would understand this if I can find the right sheet here.

There's so many sheets of paper. It's called Libbey glass and they have two furnaces. I come from an industrial part of America and life there has been hell for a long time because we forgot what the defense industrial base of this country really is. And we've been trying to catch up, but it's been hard.

And oh, here it is. OK. So the department had $6 billion in DOE investments that were leveraged with $14 billion of private sector investment. And one of those companies, Libbey Glass, which gave me permission to even use their -- I'm even afraid to use their name in public. They're a great company. They're a legacy company in our community.

I'll start to cry. They're generous and they work hard. And they are to replace four regenerative furnaces with two larger hybrid electric furnaces to reduce the carbon intensity of its Toledo Ohio facility by up to 50 percent. And the department is considering canceling more than 60 percent of their industrial demonstration projects, which would be devastating to our community.

And this is a company that never left the city. They didn't go out into the suburbs, OK, and break more ground. They're a responsible company. And for this award review and cancellation process, how is DOE or any part of your administration assessing which DOE projects will be canceled or continued? What criteria are you using?

And even if DOE chooses not to cancel any of these awards, these actions are creating mass confusion. Unemployment is going up in our area, by the way, and companies have canceled almost $8 billion in energy manufacturing projects so far just this year, five times more than was canceled last year. So given your private sector background, what can you do to help me understand what is happening to this particular company in the review process? Where are they?

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT:

Representative Kaptur, I appreciate your passion for industrial America, keeping the industries we have, bringing new industries home. We are so aligned on that. It's one of the things I'm excited about this administration. We've outsourced so many of those jobs overseas. I was lucky. I grew up in suburban America and got a great education.

I've had a dreamy life. I could have been born somewhere else. I could have had a very different life. I share your passion.

RANKING MEMBER MARCY KAPTUR:

Thank you.

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT:

I share your passion. So I think I mentioned briefly, I walk into a department that I am very passionate about energy and all that. I want to support as many activities and projects as we can, to save American industry and grow American industry. So fully aligned on that. I think I gave the numbers before, but I walked into a thing where $100 billion had been shoveled out the door in 76 days.

SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT:

I'm responsible for that money now, either in money out the door or committed to money to go out the door. I can't look at American taxpayers, including taxpayers in your district and say, yes, we invested $2 billion and we built a bridge to nowhere. We built something and now it's just closed because it had no marketplace, it had nowhere to go. So let me give you a quick little summary. So the answer is we haven't canceled any projects because we've been slow and careful and deliberative. We've developed a process. And in the next few months, we will run hundreds of projects, including those through our thing.

And if it's viable and it's going to create jobs and it's going to do these great things, we're going to support that project. And the simple little criterion we're looking at is legal, um, that technology, is the technology viable? Is the engineering done competently? Is there a market for the thing that's being built?

Is there a financial model that that co-funding is coming in together with the DOE funding, so the project can be complete? And does it add to national or economic security? It sounds like that one, if all the other things work certainly would. And it is aligned with this agenda?

RANKING MEMBER MARCY KAPTUR:

Mr. Secretary, thank you for that, putting that on the record, but that was already approved. You are reviewing something that was -- all the appropriated money was already there. Those decisions had been made. So that is a very -- this is a very strange process because that -- those dollars weren't to be spent, um, already as we work toward the '26 budget.