DOE cancels USD7.56B in clean energy projects, hydrogen hubs

The US Energy Department (DOE) has announced the termination of $7.56 billion in grants and loans for clean energy projects, particularly those in blue states, according to Trump administration officials, as per Chemweek.

The DOE announced late Oct. 1 that it has terminated 321 financial awards for 223 projects, following months of uncertainty for energy developers with federal funding contracts. After a review, the department determined the projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable or would not provide a positive return on investment.

The funds were for projects in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, according to Russell Vought, director of the US Office of Management and Budget. Each state listed is represented in the US Senate by two Democrats except Vermont, which has one Democratic senator and one independent.

The awards were issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Grid Deployment (GDO), Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Fossil Energy (FE).

“On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Secretary Chris Wright said. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy.”

Of the 321 financial awards terminated, 26% were awarded between election day and inauguration day. Those awards were valued at over $3.1 billion.

Democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned the DOE’s decision as political. The Trump administration’s announcement came on day one of a federal government shutdown after Congress failed to pass a budget deal on Sept. 30.

The announcement represents the Trump administration’s second round of DOE grant cancellations. In May, the agency canceled $3.7 billion in funds for carbon capture and other decarbonization technologies, affecting projects in both red and blue states.

The DOE did not provide a list of affected projects. However California officials said the state's $1.2 billion hydrogen hub grant was one of them. The DOE has been threatening for months to cancel contracts with clean energy projects, and the California hub was rumored to be on the agency's "hit list."

The Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) — the massive public-private coalition behind California's hydrogen hub — closed its funding contract with the DOE in July 2024. The deal garnered an additional $11.4 billion in outside financial commitments for the development of green hydrogen infrastructure and end uses. But the DOE never released more than $30 million of the $1.2 billion grant; the rest was to be made available upon completion of certain project milestones.

Despite the loss of federal funding, ARCHES will “press forward” with its hydrogen hub project, the coalition's board chair Theresa Maldonado said in an Oct. 1 statement. But the DOE's decision could still cost jobs and private-sector investment, California officials argued.

Additionally, Bloomberg News reported that the DOE scrapped $1 billion in funding that covered the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association (PNWH2) hub. In July 2024, PNWH2 was awarded $27.5 million is for the first tranche of funding out of the total federal cost share of up to $1 billion.

Award recipients have 30 days to appeal a contract termination, the DOE said.

In October 2023, the Biden administration announced $7 billion to be divided among seven regional clean hydrogen hubs: PNWH2; ARCHES; Heartland Hydrogen Hub (HH2H); HyVelocity Hub; Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen (MACHH2); Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2); and Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2).

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Dow and MEGlobal, a global leader in the manufacture and marketing of ethylene glycol (EG) products, have finalized an agreement for Dow to supply an additional equivalent to 100 KTA of ethylene from its Gulf Coast operations, said the company.

The ethylene will serve as a key feedstock for MEGlobal’s ethylene glycol (EG) manufacturing facility co-located at Dow’s and MEGlobal’s Oyster Creek site.

“Dow’s low conversion costs and feedstock flexibility allow us to leverage cost-advantaged U.S. shale gas,” said Isam Shomaly, Dow’s Vice President of Feedstocks. “This expanded agreement with MEGlobal underscores our dedication to delivering additional value for our shareholders while continuing to reliably serve and innovate with our partners.”

As a subsidiary of EQUATE Petrochemical Company (EQUATE), MEGlobal is part of the EQUATE Group which is the world’s second largest producer of EG. Dow is a 42.5% shareholder in EQUATE. MEGlobal started up its world-scale EG manufacturing facility at its Oyster Creek site in 2019.

“MEGlobal’s Oyster Creek site provides us with greater flexibility to serve our customers with consistent and reliable delivery of ethylene glycol products in the growing U.S. and Asian markets,” said Scott Daigle, MEGlobal’s U.S. Production Director.

EG is used in a number of market applications, including polyester fibers, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and packaging, antifreeze and coolants, paints, resins, deicing fluids, heat transfer fluids and construction materials.

Dow is one of the world’s leading materials science companies, serving customers in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer applications. Our global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation, leading business positions and commitment to sustainability enable us to achieve profitable growth and help deliver a sustainable future. We operate manufacturing sites in 30 countries and employ approximately 36,000 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $43 billion in 2024.

With a worldwide network, MEGlobal is a global leader in the manufacture and marketing of ethylene glycol (EG), marketing its products throughout Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. MEGlobal embraces the principles of Responsible Care, focusing on the safety of employees, neighbors, communities and the environment in every aspect of its operations. As a subsidiary of EQUATE Petrochemical Company (EQUATE), MEGlobal is part of the EQUATE Group which is the world’s second largest producer of EG.

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Technip Energies (Paris) has secured two engineering services contracts from Repsol SA (Madrid) for the Ecoplanta waste-to-methanol project at El Morell, Spain, as per Chemweek.

Repsol’s Ecoplanta project, representing a total investment of more than €800 million by the company, is expected to start up in 2029, according to previous statements by Repsol.

The plant will process up to 400,000 metric tons per year of currently nonrecyclable municipal waste and biomass to produce approximately 240,000 metric tons of circular methanol using Enerkem Inc.’s gasification technology, Technip said Oct. 1. The methanol will be used for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals.

Technip will provide engineering and procurement services for the Enerkem core process and balance-of-plant integration, building on the strategic collaboration agreement signed with Enerkem in October 2024, it said.

The contracts will be booked in the company’s third-quarter 2025 backlog, it said. The value of the services contracts was not disclosed.

The Ecoplanta project is cofunded by the European Union’s Innovation Fund.
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Early autumn cold, which this year arrived two weeks early, requires additional volumes of gas from gas companies for the market, with heating beginning in Moscow two weeks earlier than last year, as per Interfax.

"Gazprom set a new historical record for September for daily gas supplies from the Unified Gas Supply System [UGSS]. On September 29, 982.1 million cubic meters of gas were supplied to Russian consumers. The record for hourly gas consumption during the day for September was also updated - 42,863 cubic meters (1028.7 million cubic meters in daily terms)," Gazprom said.

"The increase in gas consumption is linked to the sharp cold snap and the start of the heating season in many regions of the country," it said.

The previous maximum indicators for September include 971.8 million cubic meters of daily supplies and 41,092 cubic meters of hourly gas consumption during the day (986.2 million cubic meters in daily terms) recorded on September 30, 2021.

Air temperature, primarily during the heating season, is the main factor determining levels of consumption, and hence gas production.

The UGSS is Gazprom's network of trunk gas pipelines which covers the European part of Russia and Siberia up to Altai and Kuzbass. To the east, the gas supply is currently represented by autonomous gas transportation systems, which will be connected to the UGSS in the future.
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Retail trade turnover in Russia increased 2.8% year-on-year in August, Rosstat said on Wednesday, as per Interfax.

The result was better than the Interfax consensus forecast, which expected an increase of 2.2%. The growth quickened from 2% in July 2025. The turnover increased 2.2% in January-August.

Retail trade in food, including beverages and tobacco, rose 1.5% YoY in August and 2.4% in July, and 2.4% in 8M. Non-food retail trade rose 4.2%, 1.6% and 2%, respectively.

Food retail accounted for 46.9% of all retail in August 2025 and non-food retail for 53.1%, compared with 46.3% and 53.7%, respectively, in August 2024. Retail trade was 5.354 trillion rubles in nominal terms in August and 39.431 trillion rubles in 8M 2025.

The consensus forecast of economists surveyed by Interfax in September suggests that the growth rates will continue to slow down in 2025, and the indicator will increase 2.2%. The updated official forecast of the Economic Development Ministry from September 2025 envisages an increase in the indicator of 2.5%.

Retail trade turnover in Russia increased 7.7% in 2024.

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