Make no new energy loans or loan guarantees
What the document says“Should not back any new loans or loan guarantees.”
The chapter says taxpayers should not be backing risky business ventures or politically preferred commercial enterprises, and asks that the department also seek to sunset its loan authority through Congress and eventually eliminate the Loan Programs Office.
What the document actually says“Should not back any new loans or loan guarantees.”
Do not back any new loans. Do not guarantee any either.
The department lends money for energy projects. It also promises to cover some private loans. The book says it should stop doing both.
Making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes
2026-01-23 · 140 Stat. 5
The passage asks that the department not back any new loans or loan guarantees. Public Law 119-74 provides $150,000,000, to remain available until expended, for the cost of loan guarantees for the construction of small modular reactors or advanced nuclear reactors under section 1703(b)(4) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and attaches provisos restricting which projects those commitments may cover. The fit breaks down in that the act supplies subsidy cost and conditions rather than directing the department to make any particular loan, it says nothing about the department's existing loan portfolio, and the passage addresses what the department should choose to do while the act addresses what Congress has made available.
The passage asked the energy department to back no new loans. The 2026 spending law puts up $150 million toward loan aid for new nuclear plants. It does not order any one loan to be made. The law says what money is there, not what the department must choose.