The Department of Energy’s loan office has a new director.
Starting today, Lane Genatowski, who served as the director of the Advanced Research Programs Agency for Energy under the first Trump administration, will lead the Loan Programs Office, according to a person familiar with the office’s plans. LPO is responsible for deploying around $400 billion in public financing to accelerate energy and manufacturing projects.
Genatowski first arrived at DOE in 2018, starting out as senior advisor to the undersecretary for science. Before that he worked in the financial services sector, including as managing director of power and utilities, first at JP Morgan, and then at Bank of America. During his tenure as ARPA-E director, the agency greatly expanded its programs, adding technologies including nuclear fusion and agricultural carbon management.
He replaces John Sneed, who served as LPO director during the first Trump administration for two years, and who departed last week. Sneed reportedly agreed to return in a transitional capacity in January, and his 30-day tenure was extended twice, DOE said.
Genatowski hasn’t yet commented publicly on the direction he plans to take the loan office. However, when he was first nominated to lead ARPA-E, he sparred with democratic lawmakers over his support for Trump’s budget proposal at the time, which zeroed out funding for that office.
The first Trump administration also attempted to cut LPO’s budget entirely for four years in a row. And Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the president’s second term from the Heritage Foundation, calls for eliminating its funding entirely, along with that of the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and ARPA-E.
As a result, the president’s antipathy toward the office has been a cause for concern for both would-be borrowers, and those who had already inked deals.
Like the rest of DOE, LPO was hit by layoffs that targeted contract workers and probationary employees last month. And of course, its much-expanded funding authority was designated by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, both of which Trump has railed against.
However, money has been flowing to certain loan recipients. At least two confirmed projects — Calumet’s sustainable aviation fuel facility in Montana, and Holtec’s restart of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan — have received requested tranches of their funds since the administration took office.
And in an interview with Bloomberg last month, energy secretary Chris Wright said the office’s uncommitted funds would keep flowing to “advance the president’s agenda,” and that the office would follow the law on the awards he has inherited.
