Project 2025 Targets DOE's Clean Energy Programs: FECM and EERE Elimination, Efficiency Standards Repeal, and LNG Export Overhaul
Project 2025 proposes eliminating or renaming the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), repealing federal appliance efficiency standards, and expediting LNG exports by reinstating a NEPA categorical exclusion and expanding automatic approvals to NATO and FTA allies. As of mid-2025, these actions remain proposed, though the Paris Climate Accord withdrawal (executed Jan 20, 2025) and EO 14154 (expedited fossil fuel permitting) signal a broader deregulatory push.
Project 2025's DOE chapter is a blueprint to dismantle the federal government's capacity to manage the energy transition, prioritizing fossil fuel supply over climate mitigation and consumer protection. The elimination of FECM and EERE—the offices responsible for carbon management and clean energy deployment—would halt ongoing research into methane reduction, carbon capture, and renewable energy innovation, locking in fossil fuel dependence for decades. The proposal to repeal appliance efficiency standards, which have saved consumers billions in energy costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, would reverse decades of bipartisan progress and increase household energy burdens, disproportionately affecting low-income families.
The LNG export provisions are particularly aggressive: reinstating a NEPA categorical exclusion for LNG terminals would bypass environmental review, greenlighting massive infrastructure projects that risk methane leakage, water contamination, and public health impacts in frontline communities along the Gulf Coast. Expanding automatic approvals to NATO and FTA allies would remove any remaining oversight, turning the Department of Energy into a rubber stamp for industry expansion. This approach contradicts the IPCC's finding that rapid fossil fuel phase-down is essential to limit warming to 1.5°C, and it ignores the environmental justice mandate of EO 12898 by concentrating pollution burdens in already-overburdened areas.
The proposed elimination of FECM and EERE is not yet implemented—as of early 2025, both offices remain operational, with FECM still announcing grants for methane reduction. However, the Paris withdrawal (executed Jan 20, 2025) and EO 14154 (extending expedited fossil fuel permitting) demonstrate the administration's willingness to act unilaterally on the pro-fossil agenda. The fight now is to prevent Congress from codifying cuts to these programs, while mobilizing to reverse the Paris exit and restore NEPA protections for LNG exports through judicial challenges and future legislation.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Rescind Executive Order 14154 President must revoke the Jan 20, 2025 order that mandates expedited fossil fuel permitting and appears to revoke NEPA categorical exclusions; this restores normal NEPA review for LNG exports and halts automatic approvals.
- Rejoin the Paris Agreement via new executive order or Senate ratification President should submit a new instrument of acceptance to the UNFCCC, or, if the one-year withdrawal period has elapsed, Congress and the administration must initiate re-entry through the same treaty process, which takes effect 30 days after deposit.
- Congressional rejection of DOE restructuring proposals Congress must refuse to pass any legislation eliminating or renaming FECM or EERE, and must maintain or increase appropriations for these offices to support fossil fuel wind-down and clean energy deployment.
- Maintain and enforce appliance efficiency standards Congress should reject any attempt to repeal or weaken the Energy Policy and Conservation Act's efficiency standards; DOE should continue tightening standards per statutory requirements.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 12: Department of Energy (pp 410-412)"— 377 — Department of Energy and Related Commissions majority of critical materials are mined or processed (or both) in Russia and China.36 The processing of critical materials from fossil fuel waste products (primarily coal) has shown some potential and, in view of our vast domestic reserves of coal and abundant waste from coal mining and combustion, should be pursued. New Policies l Eliminate FECM. The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate all of DOE’s applied energy programs, including those in FECM (with the possible exception of those that are related to basic science for new energy technology). Taxpayer dollars should not be used to subsidize preferred businesses and energy resources, thereby distorting the market and undermining energy reliability. l Rename FECM (if it cannot be eliminated) under its original designation as the Office of Fossil Energy and with its original mission: increasing energy security and supply through fossil fuels. l Focus on energy security and supply. Absent elimination of FECM, Congress should direct FECM appropriations toward increasing energy security and supply. Congress has already directed these goals (…"