The Department of Energy is formalizing the Loan Programs Office’s expanded role in critical minerals financing this week, publishing draft rules for the new “Energy Dominance Financing Program.”
That program, created under the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” over the summer, will explicitly support domestic critical minerals supply chain projects, as part of the ongoing federal effort to reduce U.S. reliance on China. (Per the draft rules, LPO will also stop requiring emissions curtailment and community outreach efforts for projects seeking loans.)
Implementation comes as the federal government — and DOE in particular — intensifies efforts to accelerate production of minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, on which China currently has a chokehold. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has signed a series of deals with allied nations to diversify global supply chains and counter new Chinese export restrictions, and federal agencies like DOE have doubled down on funding for critical minerals infrastructure.
LPO, historically tasked with financing first-of-a-kind energy and manufacturing projects considered too risky for commercial lenders, has already shifted its attention to critical minerals. One notable example is the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada, a loan that was conditionally approved by the Biden administration and finalized earlier this month by the Trump administration.
Inside the office, OBBB has contributed to this “refocusing” on the sector, explained Kyle Winslow, a former senior advisor at LPO, on the latest Latitude Dispatch about the future of LPO. And even though many of those loans originated during the Biden administration, Winslow said he’s still optimistic about the future of critical minerals projects in LPO’s pipeline, despite internal reshuffling.
But the path forward — for both projects in the pipeline and potential new applications — is complicated.
The White House and Congress are “talking past each other” when it comes to LPO financing priorities, said Winslow, who led congressional affairs and worked closely on both annual appropriations, and the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. That’s partly because of timing; the White House’s FY26 budget request came out as Congress was still working on OBBB, so there’s a certain amount of misalignment between that bill and the budget plans for next year.
And as the government shutdown drags on, that’s not necessarily getting resolved in the immediate future.
The OBBB approach
LPO has several pathways for funding critical minerals infrastructure within its programs. The office’s flagship program, Title 17, has supported critical minerals mining, processing, and manufacturing for over a decade.
Under the Biden administration, however, most critical minerals projects, including the Thacker Pass project, were financed through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program, which provides direct loans for domestic manufacturing, and which was expanded to include critical minerals in 2020.
That preference for using ATVM for critical minerals projects was due to a variety of factors, Winslow said, including staff expertise, lower fees for the program’s application process, and more favorable interest rates.
However, when OBBB passed this summer, it made some significant changes to LPO’s capacity for critical minerals financing. The bill rescinded loan authority granted to ATVM and Title 17 under the IRA, as well as remaining credit subsidy for both programs, essentially rendering them unable to finance any “high-risk” projects (like battery manufacturing, for example).
There was a bright spot for critical minerals, however: OBBB repurposed Section 1706 into a new federal financing initiative called the Energy Dominance Loan Program, which will explicitly include critical minerals supply chain projects. Rulemaking for that new program is now underway, with a public comment period opening today. Winslow believes the program has around $200 billion in loan authority.
The ‘unintentional shell game’
LPO’s future with regards to using ATVM and Title 17 for financing critical minerals projects looks a little bit brighter — and a little more confusing — in the appropriations process that’s ongoing on the Hill right now, Winslow explained.
For example, the FY26 budget request from the White House, submitted in May, suggests rescinding a certain amount of ATVM credit subsidy originally appropriated in 2009. The request explains that DOE should still expect to issue up to $5.25 billion in ATVM loans next year, under credit subsidy authorized by the IRA — authority that was rescinded by OBBB in July.
“It’s a little bit of an unintentional shell game,” Winslow said.
But despite the apparent efforts to shuffle things around at LPO, there’s ongoing bipartisan interest in continuing some ATVM-originated loans, he added: “In conversations across government, with the Energy Dominance Council and others, it’s been clear that they see ATVM as a tool within the federal tool box to meet critical mineral supply challenges and support these projects.”
That support is reflected in the House’s markup of the budget request, Winslow explained. The chamber ignored the White House’s requested cuts to the 2009 appropriations for ATVM, and added credit subsidies for advanced nuclear and SMRs.
The Senate hasn’t released its budget recommendations yet — and things are in a holding pattern during the ongoing government shutdown, which is on its 28th day — but the upper chamber is usually “the more favorable of the two marks,” Winslow said.
There’s still “room for interpretation” on the future of programs like ATVM, he added, but the appropriations process may be a better indicator of the shape LPO will have on the other side of the second Trump term than the legislation passed so far. “For any reconciliation measures you can have large swings in what’s available to LPO,” Winslow said, pointing to the IRA and then the OBBB.
Meanwhile, the more bipartisan appropriations process can ensure the office has administrative expenses to “weather that storm,” and can make smaller tweaks to credit subsidy to align with an administration’s priorities, he said.
