U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to end all subsidies for electric vehicles and renewable energy in near future, the White House Economic Adviser Lawrence Kudlow announced Monday.
'We want to end all those subsidies ... We are a free market,' Kudlow told reporters, adding '... other subsidies imposed during the Obama administration renewables, etc.' will also end in 2020 or 2021.
Kudlow's statement came after Trump said last week that he could cut federal subsidies of General Motors (GM) after the American automaker giant announced halting production at five factories in Canada and the U.S. cutting its salaried work force by 15 percent.
'Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars,' Trump wrote on social media last Tuesday, Nov. 27.
'If GM doesn't want to keep their jobs in the United States, they should pay back the $11.2 billion bailout that was funded by the American taxpayer,' he added the next day.
GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and received $49.5 billion from the U.S. government for its bailout.
When the U.S. Treasury Department sold its GM shares in 2013, it recovered $39 billion of the initial amount, losing $10.3 billion in the process. The Treasury's loss was revised in 2014 to $11.2 billion.
While Trump aims to bring American automakers' manufacturing back to the U.S., he is also known for rolling back his predecessor President Barack Obama's clean energy initiatives.
Promising to 'unleash an energy revolution' in the U.S. during his presidential campaign, Trump's energy agenda focuses heavily on exploration and production of oil, natural gas and coal.
In addition to announcing in June 2017 of pulling the U.S. out of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement, he reopened offshore drilling in the U.S.' Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions
Trump won in eight of the top nine coal producing states in the U.S. during his presidential campaign.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr