No more free ride: Trump axes millions in subsidized NM renewables

President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy has halted more than $135 million in so-called “clean energy” projects across New Mexico—part of a larger $7.5 billion rollback of wasteful spending in 21 mostly Democrat-run states.

The decision scrapped 10 projects in New Mexico alone, ranging from carbon-capture schemes to taxpayer-backed solar and hydrogen startups—initiatives critics say could never survive without massive federal subsidies. Trump’s DOE said the move was about cutting political handouts and protecting taxpayers from funding experimental technologies that deliver little real energy value.

Democrats immediately fumed over the cuts. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich called the move “unhinged and unlawful,” while Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez complained that utilities might raise rates to meet contract obligations. “They can’t just say, ‘Sorry,’” she told KOB 4, warning that ratepayers could be left footing the bill for projects that were never economically viable in the first place. But the leftists messed around and apparently found out that the golden goose for wasteful projects was finally going away.

Among the projects canceled was a $6.6 million grant to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company for a carbon-capture experiment at the Four Corners Power Plant—a $13 million taxpayer-subsidized venture designed to “test” CO₂ reduction technology. The only reason such a project exists is because Democrats and some Republicans in the state Legislature passed teh “Energy Transition Act,” the state’s form of the Green New Deal, which is set to shutter the coal-burning power plant by 2031. 

Also gone are millions in funding for Kit Carson Electric Co-op’s $29 million battery-storage system in northern New Mexico and PNM’s $72 million “virtual power plant” project.

The state’s taxpayer-funded universities and green tech firms were hit as well. New Mexico Tech lost roughly $56 million in projects tied to the Biden-era “Fossil Energy Carbon Management” program, including a carbon-storage hub, methane-emission projects, and direct-air-capture research. Albuquerque-based Pajarito Powder saw two heavily subsidized hydrogen-catalyst projects, totaling nearly $19 million in federal funding, scrapped.

Critics of the so-called clean-energy sector say these programs represent the very definition of corporate welfare—propped up by taxpayer dollars yet incapable of competing with affordable and reliable fossil fuels. Despite decades of government handouts, renewable projects continue to rely on subsidies, mandates, and inflated rate structures to stay afloat.

By contrast, Trump’s move reflects his administration’s return to energy realism. Supporters argue that ending politically driven renewable subsidies protects consumers from higher electric bills and keeps America’s energy grid reliable. “These projects aren’t about energy—they’re about ideology,” one energy analyst said. “When government picks winners and losers, taxpayers always lose.”

Even PNM, New Mexico’s largest utility, acknowledged the federal cuts wouldn’t stop its core operations. “PNM will continue to focus on providing safe and reliable power to the communities we serve,” company spokesperson Eric Chavez told KOB 4.

In the end, Trump’s decision underscores a fundamental economic truth: a healthy energy market doesn’t need handouts. While Democrats decry the move as political, millions of Americans see it as a long-overdue correction—ending the costly experiment of “green” projects that burn through tax dollars while delivering little more than higher prices and empty promises.