The Trump administration is standing behind a controversial deal that Biden-era officials negotiated to close a California solar plant funded with a 10-figure federal loan guarantee. California regulators are poised to ax the agreement.
What happened: California Public Utilities Commission leaders are scheduled to vote Thursday on their staff’s recommendation that the agency reject contract termination agreements that the owners of the Ivanpah Electric Generating Station negotiated with Pacific Gas & Electric and the Department of Energy, under then-President Joe Biden.
But Gregory Beard, senior adviser to the DOE Office of Energy Dominance Financing, wrote a letter to the CPUC last month urging the agency to accept the deal his predecessors cut.
Why it matters: The saga has flipped the script, at least temporarily, on the oil-and-gas-friendly Trump administration’s assault on Biden-era energy priorities and California’s renewable goals. Instead of reversing the Biden DOE position on Ivanpah, Trump officials are sticking to the same path. And while the Trump administration has largely implemented its anti-renewable energy agenda at will on other fronts, its officials have had to take a less aggressive approach this time around, politely pleading for collaboration on Ivanpah.