Trump administration admits politics drove clean-energy grant cancellations

The Trump administration acknowledged in court filings that clean-energy grants were selected for cancellation because of the states’ political affiliation, not just program performance or cost. Department of Energy lawyer Jeff Novak said the department drew up a list of 624 grants for potential termination, a process that culminated in the cancellation of 223 projects worth more than $7.5 billion.

The grants supported hundreds of clean-energy projects in 16 states that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Many of those awards were already tied to construction schedules, private financing and hiring plans, and the cancellations can strand investment, delay jobs and unsettle utilities, manufacturers and local governments that had built project timetables around federal money.

In January, a federal judge ruled that the Energy Department’s cancellation of $7.5 billion in Biden-era energy spending, largely in Democratic-led states, was unlawful. The new filing makes clear that politics, rather than neutral compliance or performance review, was part of the selection process.

A July 14 analysis found that Trump policies had helped push 223 manufacturing and clean-energy projects, representing $82.9 billion in investment and 111,765 jobs, into delay or cancellation. Those projects span batteries, transmission, hydrogen, carbon capture and advanced manufacturing, sectors that depend on stable federal commitments when companies decide where to build plants, lock in financing and hire workers.