The War on Climate Progress at the DOE: Project 2025's Plan to Repeal the IRA and IIJA
Project 2025's DOE chapter calls for renaming the department to DESAS, repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and redirecting focus from climate to fossil fuels. As of mid-2025, the IRA and IIJA remain law, but the administration has partially executed the fossil fuel redirect via executive orders and legislation to repeal clean energy tax credits has been introduced, threatening hundreds of billions in clean energy investment.
Project 2025's blueprint for the Department of Energy is not simply a bureaucratic reshuffling; it is a direct assault on the two most significant pieces of climate legislation in U.S. history. The call to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would strip hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies, tax credits, and deployment programs, effectively handing a windfall to fossil fuel interests while abandoning the transition to a decarbonized economy. According to the Tax Foundation, repeal of IRA green energy tax breaks alone would raise $851 billion over a decade—but that 'savings' comes at the cost of decimating the market for solar, wind, battery storage, and electric vehicles, locking in higher emissions and higher energy costs for consumers. The Energy Innovation analysis confirms that rolling back these provisions would increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and raise household energy bills.
This reframe treats the DOE as a public trust, not a corporate convenience. The department's 17 National Laboratories have been vital to American scientific leadership, but Project 2025's 'DESAS' vision would gut climate and renewable research in favor of nuclear weapons and fossil fuel promotion. The chapter's language—”stop the war on oil and natural gas”—is a dog whistle for dismantling EPA enforcement, easing pollution limits, and accelerating drilling on public lands. Environmental justice communities, already bearing the burden of co-pollutants from fossil fuel infrastructure, would face increased asthma, cancer, and premature deaths. The alternative is clear: expand DOE's clean energy loan programs, restore climate research funding, and align the department's mission with rapid decarbonization and equitable energy access.
The humanitarian alternative
Congress should reject any repeal or weakening of the IRA and IIJA clean energy provisions. Instead, it should strengthen DOE's climate programs, restore fossil fuel subsidy reform, and mandate environmental justice screening for all DOE-funded projects. The DESAS renaming should be abandoned.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Rescind Executive Orders redirecting DOE focus to fossil fuels The next administration should rescind any EOs that declare a national energy emergency or prioritize fossil fuel permitting over clean energy, restoring climate program funding via agency directive.
- Defeat repeal legislation (e.g., HR 2810) Congress must vote down any bill that repeals IRA or IIJA clean energy tax credits or provisions, maintaining the law as enacted in 2022 and 2021.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 12: Department of Energy (pp 398-400)"— 365 — Department of Energy and Related Commissions l Support repeal of massive spending bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)3 and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA),4 which established new programs and are providing hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to renewable energy developers, their investors, and special interests, and support the rescinding of all funds not already spent by these programs. l Unleash private-sector energy innovation by ending government interference in energy decisions. l Stop the war on oil and natural gas. l Allow individuals, families, and business to use the energy resources they want to use and that will best serve their needs. l Secure and protect energy infrastructure from cyber and physical attacks. l Refocus the Department of Energy on energy security, accelerated remediation, and advanced science. l Promote U.S. energy resources as a means to assist our allies and diminish our strategic adversaries. l Refocus FERC on ensuring that customers have affordable and reliable electricity, natural gas, and oil and no longer allow it to favor special interests and progressive causes. l Ensure that the Nucle…"