Trump Administration Says Politics Drove $7.6 Billion in Clean Energy Grant Cuts/ TezzBuzz/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ The Trump administration acknowledged in court that it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants based solely on the political identity of recipients’ states. The affected projects were located in 16 states that supported Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The admission conflicts with previous administration claims that the projects were eliminated because they were economically unviable or failed to meet national energy needs.
Quick Look
- The administration canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants.
- Court documents say the decision was based solely on the political identity of recipients’ states.
- All 16 affected states voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
- The Energy Department terminated 321 awards covering 223 projects.
- Projects involved batteries, hydrogen, grid modernization and carbon capture.
- Energy Secretary Chris Wright previously described the cancellations as “business decisions.”
- The department’s inspector general launched an investigation in December.
- Earlier government filings acknowledged targeting grants in Democratic-leaning states.
- Federal lawyers also used policy-related keywords to screen projects.
- The Energy Department did not immediately comment on the latest filing.
Deep Look
Court Filing Discloses Political Basis for Grant Cuts
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has acknowledged in court filings that it canceled $7.6 billion in federal grants for clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state.”
The canceled funding covered hundreds of projects in 16 states that supported Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
The acknowledgment conflicts with repeated public statements by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other administration officials, who said the projects were canceled because they did not sufficiently advance US energy needs or represented poor investments of taxpayer money.
Democrats and environmental organizations said the filing demonstrated that the administration used federal funding decisions to punish states based on their voting patterns.
Democrats Say Filing Confirms Their Suspicions
“This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: it terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election,” said Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.
Kaptur and Murray hold senior Democratic positions on the House and Senate appropriations committees.
“Weaponizing the federal government like this is outright un-American, and it’s hardworking families already struggling with sky-high costs who are suffering the consequences of this corrupt abuse of power,” they said.
The lawmakers urged congressional Republicans to help hold the administration “accountable for the President’s failure to look out for all Americans.”
Energy Department Canceled 321 Awards
The Energy Department announced in October 2025 that it was terminating 321 funding awards connected to 223 projects.
At the time, the department said a review determined that the projects “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable.”
The reductions formed part of Trump’s broader effort to dismantle federal climate initiatives and reduce government support for renewable and low-carbon energy.
Affected projects included plans to manufacture batteries, develop hydrogen technology, improve the electric grid and capture carbon dioxide emissions.
White House Budget Chief Tied Cuts to Climate Agenda
White House budget director Russell Vought publicly celebrated the cancellations in a social media post.
He said federal money “to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”
Wright nevertheless maintained that the cancellations were “business decisions” based on whether each project represented an appropriate use of taxpayer resources.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest court disclosure.
All Targeted States Supported Harris
The canceled projects were located in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
All 16 states voted for Harris rather than Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
No state that supported Trump was included in the group identified in the filing.
The stated political basis for the cuts has become central to ongoing lawsuits challenging the administration’s decisions.
Lawmakers Requested Inspector General Investigation
The cancellations were challenged in court shortly after they were announced.
More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress also requested a formal investigation by the Energy Department’s acting inspector general.
The request was led by California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
The department’s internal watchdog opened an investigation in December.
Earlier Filing Acknowledged Focus on Blue States
The latest admission was not the first time government lawyers acknowledged that political geography influenced the grant decisions.
In a separate lawsuit filed by clean energy organizations and the city of St. Paul, Minnesotafederal attorneys said the selection of grants “was influenced by whether a grantee’s address was located in a State that tends to elect … Democratic candidates in state and national elections (so-called ‘Blue States’).”
The newest acknowledgment came in Thakur v. Trump, a case that has been pending since spring 2026.
Keywords Used to Screen Projects
Federal lawyers also acknowledged that officials screened projects using keywords associated with policies opposed by the Trump administration.
Those terms were related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19.
The screening was intended to identify projects that potentially conflicted with the administration’s priorities.
The court will consider whether those political and ideological criteria were legally permissible when used to terminate previously approved federal awards.
Sierra Club Condemns Cancellations
Holly Bender, the Sierra Club’s chief program officer, said the filing demonstrated that the administration had adopted a politically retaliatory approach to energy policy.
She said it shows “the Trump administration is brazenly admitting to a vindictive approach to cancelling much-needed energy infrastructure that ignores the job losses, air pollution and increasing bills that people are experiencing everywhere.”
Bender also accused the administration of redirecting federal support toward fossil fuels.
Instead of “building the energy projects we desperately need,” she said, billions of taxpayer dollars are “going to line the pockets of a small handful of fossil fuel company CEOs.”
She cited nearly $3 billion pledged by the administration to end offshore wind developments in favor of projects involving natural gas and coal.
The administration argues that its energy agenda prioritizes reliability, affordability and domestic production.
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