News Breakbulk & Project Cargo
The Trump administration cut $ 8 billion in funding for renewable energy projects in 2025. Darryl Brooks / Shutterstock. com
A precarious position
US clean energy project cancelations outpacing new investments
By Autumn Cafiero Giusti
Demand for renewable energy project cargo in the US— including components linked to electric vehicles( EVs), power storage, hydrogen and wind farm developments— could be setting up for a fall as project losses have begun to far outpace gains.
Companies canceled nearly $ 35 billion in US renewable energy projects in 2025, and for the first time in three years, there were more project investments leaving the US than coming in, according to a report published in early February by Washington, DC-based environmental policy research group E2.
“ Companies abandoned, closed or downsized nearly three dollars in clean energy investment for every one dollar announced.”
That comes as the Trump administration has initiated sweeping changes to the US energy landscape, shifting policies and funding to prioritize fossil fuels while downgrading support and resources for renewable energy projects.
“ Companies abandoned, closed or downsized nearly three dollars in clean energy investment for every one dollar announced, reversing the net flow of capital that had defined the post-2022 clean energy expansion,” the E2 report read, referencing $ 12.3 billion in new project announcements in 2025.
Manufacturing facilities accounted for nearly all of the year’ s losses, with $ 30.2 billion in abandoned projects. The bulk of the year’ s cancellations came from EV and battery storage projects, with over $ 21 billion lost in each segment. Figures in the analysis do not match the overall totals, as some projects are categorized into multiple sectors.
Felix Schoeller, CCO for multipurpose vessel( MPV) operator AAL Shipping, told the Journal of Commerce there’ s been a noticeable shift in renewable energy project cargo activity for the US. AAL is a global transporter of components for wind energy projects, which have experienced widespread downsizing across offshore and onshore developments in the US and accounted for $ 1.3 billion in project losses in 2025, according to the E2 analysis.
“ The US government is placing greater emphasis on carbon-based power generation investments and broader oil and gas project developments rather than wind energy,” Scholler said, citing the delay and cancellation of a number of offshore wind projects, including some that were previously approved.“ As a result, AAL has observed a significant reduction in wind cargo volumes in North America and an elevated demand for components for large-scale infrastructure and oil and gas projects.”
Scholler cited AAL’ s recent transport of over 2,500 battery energy storage system( BESS) units to the US from China in response to a surge in demand for high-capacity BESS components. BESS configurations are widely used as onsite power sources for oil and gas facilities.
The Trump administration last year cut nearly $ 8 billion in funding for clean energy projects, issued directives aimed at deregulation and expanded leasing access for fossil fuels, and permanently reinstated a 100 % tax writeoff for qualifying oil and gas assets.
Moving overseas
Some of the US renewable energy sector’ s most consequential cancellations— and one of the largest withdrawal periods on record— came in December, when eight projects totaling $ 5.1 billion were put on the chopping block, according to the E2 analysis. South Korean manufacturer SK On scrapped a $ 2.8 billion EV / battery storage project in Tennessee, while Ford called off a $ 1.5 billion EV manufacturing plant in Ohio as the automaker continues to scale back and restructure its EV facilities.
December’ s project losses were over 20 times as much as the month’ s gains, which totaled $ 238 million for six new manufacturing projects. Announcements included a $ 170 million battery project for Desert Mountain Energy in New Mexico, a $ 26.7 million Toyo Solar facility in Texas and a Ford / Contemporary Amperex Technology battery project for an unspecified dollar amount in Kentucky.
US project reversals could usher in an eventual reallocation of clean energy projects and their subsequent cargo demands to other parts of the world.
“ Investment that does not move forward in the United States does not disappear— it is increasingly redirected to foreign markets and US competitors offering more predictable environments, clearer incentives and greater longterm certainty,” the E2 report stated.
email: autumn @ autumngiusti. com
22 Journal of Commerce | March 2026 www. joc. com