Considering I have never read about this in any US publication (including plenty that would have every reason to ridicule the current administration, and bash them over their Global Warming stance), I can only conclude this is simply research - not policy.

The US government is constantly researching all sorts of way-out-there possibilities, discoveries, and technologies.

I imagine when DARPA wanted to connect every computer on the planet it would have sounded pretty ludicrous if printed in a newspaper.

But hey, millions of tubes later, we have the internet.