Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Major · Needs Congress

Eliminate DOE special-interest funding programs including OCED, ARPA-E, and OGD

Partially done

369 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions

“Eliminate special-interest funding programs. … The DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED); Office of State and Community Energy Programs; ARPA-E; Office of Grid Deployment (OGD); and DOE Loan Program should be eliminated or reformed.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    DOE's organizational realignment moved OCED, the Grid Deployment Office and the Office of State and Community Energy Programs off the department's top-level organization chart, folding them into a new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, and renamed the Loan Programs Office the Office of Energy Dominance Financing; ARPA-E remains a stand-alone office. None of the three was closed: OCED still operates as a sub-office of CMEI with a named Director and Deputy Director and its full demonstration portfolio, and announced a $500 million steelmaking award on 2026-08-21 (see #969). On 2025-10-01 DOE had canceled a further 321 awards ($7.56 billion) issued by OCED, EERE, GDO, MESC, ARPA-E and Fossil Energy. Congress then funded Grid Deployment ($25 million) and ARPA-E ($350 million) for FY2026 (P.L. 119-74, 2026-01-23); the FY2027 request zeroes OCED and keeps ARPA-E at $200 million.

  2. Partially done

    Congress reformed the Loan Program: P.L. 119-21 §50403 rewrote Energy Policy Act §1706 from an energy-infrastructure-reinvestment authority into "energy dominance financing" for any energy or critical-minerals project, appropriated $1 billion of credit subsidy through FY2028 and extended IRA §50144 commitment authority to 2028. One of the five named programs reformed (not eliminated) by statute; the other four untouched by Congress.

  3. Attempted

    Secretary Wright terminated 24 OCED awards worth $3.7 billion (mostly carbon capture and industrial decarbonization demonstrations) after a case-by-case review under the May 2025 "Ensuring Responsibility for Financial Assistance" memorandum. Awards canceled; the office and its appropriations remained.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The realignment press release names no offices; the linked organization chart is the document that shows OCED, GDO and SCEP off the top-level chart. Secondary reports (pv magazine, E&E News, AIP FYI — off the allowlist) describe the same consolidation into CMEI.
  • Corrected 2026-08-31. An earlier reading took the organization chart as evidence that OCED, GDO and SCEP had been closed. They were demoted, not closed: OCED’s page at energy.gov/cmei/oced/office-clean-energy-demonstrations, read 2026-08-31, shows OCED operating under CMEI with a Director and a Deputy Director, its hydrogen, carbon management, advanced nuclear, industrial and long-duration storage portfolio intact, and a $500 million steelmaking award announced 2026-08-21. An absence from an organization chart is not an abolition. The partial is unchanged and continues to rest on P.L. 119-21 §50403’s statutory reform of the Loan Program; it does not rest on any office being gone. #969 levels the OCED-specific ask at attempted on the same reading.
  • The FY2027 DOE Budget in Brief (2026-04-03) shows OCED at $0 for FY2026 enacted and FY2027 request, ARPA-E at $200.292 million, and Energy Dominance Financing at +$191 million.
  • ARPA-E and the loan program exist in statute (America COMPETES Act §5012; Energy Policy Act title XVII); their elimination still needs Congress (see #977).
Action
eliminate
Object
OCED, Office of State and Community Energy Programs, ARPA-E, Office of Grid Deployment, and DOE Loan Program
ID
926