WASHINGTON: The Trump administration plans to use a US$400bil green bank the president once sought to kill to finance billions of US dollars in loans for nuclear reactors, geothermal power and critical minerals, according to details of the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request.
The funding would primarily support the construction of smaller nuclear reactors as well as untested advanced nuclear reactors that have struggled to gain traction.
In all, the Energy Department wants to offer more than US$67bil in loan guarantees and other financing over the next two fiscal years, and is asking Congress to approve some US$750mil to help pay for the costs of making some of those loans.
The administration’s budget request also proposes to rescind some US$2.3bil from a vehicle loan programme that provided a US$465mil loan to Tesla Inc in 2010, when the company was struggling to get its breakthrough Model S sedan into production. — Bloomberg
