U.S. Energy Secretary, in Iowa, says federal support to continue for Ames lab, but not wind energy incentives

AMES — Amid federal budget cuts, the U.S. Energy Secretary on Thursday in Iowa provided assurances that the Ames National Laboratory that he was touring will continue to receive financial support but said wind energy production will need to start standing on its own.

U.S. Department of Energy Sec. Chris Wright on Thursday toured the Ames National Laboratory, which is owned by the government and operated by contracted employees under the federal energy department. The lab, which is housed on the Iowa State University campus, conducts research and develops materials to boost the nation’s energy security.

The energy department’s proposed budget for the 2026 federal budget year includes a 26 percent reduction in non-defense spending.

The proposed $47.5 million general budget for the Ames National Laboratory is a 4 percent decrease over the previous budget year, but a 17 percent increase over the 2024 budget year.

Wright, who has made it a goal to visit all 17 national labs, participated in briefings and discussions with scientists and lab experts and toured the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, according to the department. He was joined by Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Republican Iowa U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and guided by Ames National Laboratory Director Karl Mueller.

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The group also included Republican U.S. Reps. Bob Latta of Ohio and Bruce Westerman of Arkansas.

Wright and the others spoke to reporters during a press conference between lab tours, which were closed to the media.

“(This) laboratory is a resource for next generation energy production technology, next generation materials, next generation national security interests. Those are different,” Wright said during the press conference. “When I got (to the Department of Energy), the original idea was, ‘Let’s cut everything. Let’s shrink everything. We need to shrink our spending at the government.’ But the smallest and potentially no cuts will be to the broader national laboratory complex. These are investments in our future. They’re much smaller dollars than giant corporate subsidies, and they have huge payoffs. …

“So absolutely, we’re reprioritizing things, but national labs are central to my mission at the Department of Energy. You will see more exciting scientific breakthroughs, more activity at the labs, not less.”

Wright was less supportive of federal tax credits for wind energy projects. Federal Republicans’ recent, massive tax and spending legislation made wind energy projects no longer eligible for federal tax incentives after 2027.

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Nearly 60 percent of the energy generated in Iowa is produced by wind, according to state data, and the wind energy industry employed nearly 4,000 Iowans in 2021 and accounts for at least $22 billion in capital investment in the state, according to the Iowa Environmental Council.

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“I think it’s the right time to sunset them,” Wright said of the federal tax incentives for wind energy projects. “They’re 33 years old now. They’ve been extended 11 times.

“In an early energy producing industry, the government provides subsidies or incentives or whatever to do it, but they’ve been around for 33 years, and I think you’ve seen a mature industry develop. So like with any energy source, it’s got to achieve maturity and compete in the marketplace.”

The fossil fuel industry received $620 billion in government subsidies in 2023, according to calculations from the International Energy Agency.

Ernst said she is working with the administration to ensure projects that have already been approved for tax incentives receive them, but that she agrees the time has come to allow the incentives to expire.

“It doesn’t mean our wind energy is going away. It just means that those tax credits will be phased out,” Ernst said. “We understand that we’ve reached a mature level within the industry, and so as with any tax credit you want it to further or start a project, but at some point we need to face away from that and then look at other new, innovative technology that’s coming forward and invest in those types of technologies.”

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Ernst’s Iowa Republican colleague in the Senate, Chuck Grassley, is considered the father of the wind energy tax credit for his work in its creation. Grassley recently said he worked with other Republicans “to provide wind and solar an appropriate glide path for the orderly phaseout of the tax credits,” and that like Ernst he also is working to ensure credits already awarded to projects are honored.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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