WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy

Department's loan office on Thursday announced $22.92 billion in

conditional financing for several energy utilities across a

dozen states.

The financing, if finalized, will come through the energy

infrastructure reinvestment program at the department's Loan

Programs Office (LPO) created under President Joe Biden's

signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

The program guarantees loans to projects that retool or

replace energy infrastructure that has stopped operating or that

enables reductions in emissions blamed for global warming.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The LPO administers more than $385 billion in low-interest

loans to companies with green energy projects such as batteries,

nuclear power and advanced vehicles, and this will be among the

last rounds of financing under Biden before Donald Trump takes

office on Jan. 20.

Last month LPO announced a conditional loan of up to $15

billion to California-based utility PG&E ( PCG ).

The LPO faces an uncertain future under Trump.

BY THE NUMBERS

The recipients of the financing include two utility

subsidiaries of Detroit, Michigan-based DTE Energy Company,

which got as much as $8.8 billion. The money will fund pipeline

replacements to reduce gas leaks as well as the installation of

renewable energy.

Consumers Energy Company ( CMS/PB ), a subsidiary of CMS Energy ( CMS/PB )

, which is also based in Michigan, got a conditional

commitment of up to $5.23 billion for investments in renewable

energy and the replacement of old gas pipelines.

PacificCorp, a utility serving six western states, secured a

conditional commitment for up to $3.52 billion for transmission

lines that will boost the system's ability to send wind power to

consumers.

KEY QUOTE

"Loans to utility borrowers pose minimal risk to the

taxpayer," an Energy Department official told reporters, adding

that unlike the LPO's loans for individual projects, the

financing to investment-grade utilities was supported by all the

assets of the company. "In the unlikely event of default, LPO

could recover what it is owed, up to the loan amount, beyond the

sale or acquisition of assets financed through the loan."