WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Trump administration has acknowledged in that it for hundreds of clean energy projects 鈥渂ased solely on the political identity of the grant recipient鈥檚 state” 鈥� in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation鈥檚 energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.
Democrats and environmental groups seized on the court filing Friday, saying the administration had 鈥渨eaponized鈥� the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families because of their political views.
Democrats say what was 鈥榦bvious鈥� has now been acknowledged
鈥淭his 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,鈥� said Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. Both are high-ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees, respectively.
鈥淲eaponizing the federal government like this is outright un-American, and it鈥檚 hardworking families already struggling with sky-high costs who are suffering the consequences of this corrupt abuse of power,鈥� Kaptur and Murray said.
They called on congressional Republicans to join them in holding the Trump administration “accountable for the President鈥檚 failure to look out for all Americans.鈥�
The last October that 321 funding awards across 223 projects were terminated, saying that after review, they 鈥渄id not adequately advance the nation鈥檚 energy needs or were not economically viable.”
The cuts, part of broader on climate programs and clean energy funding, slashed federal support for projects to build battery plants, develop hydrogen technology, upgrade the electric grid and capture carbon dioxide emissions.
Russell Vought, the White House budget director, highlighted the cutbacks in a social media post, saying money 鈥渢o fuel the Left鈥檚 climate agenda is being cancelled.鈥�
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Projects from many states were cut
Projects that were cut were located in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. All 16 targeted states supported Harris, but Wright said the cuts were 鈥渂usiness decisions” based on whether the projects were a good use of taxpayer money or not.
The cuts were immediately challenged in court, and more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress, led by California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, wrote a letter to the Energy Department’s acting inspector general requesting a formal investigation. The department’s internal watchdog launched an investigation in December.
Government lawyers had p that the selection of grants in fact 鈥渨as influenced by whether a grantee鈥檚 address was located in a State that tends to elect … Democratic candidates in state and national elections (so-called 鈥淏lue States鈥�).鈥�
That filing came in a separate suit filed by clean energy groups and the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, over the canceled funding. The most recent admission came in a case called Thakur v. Trump that鈥檚 been ongoing . Federal lawyers acknowledged that they used , vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration鈥檚 priorities.
Holly Bender, chief program officer for the Sierra Club, said the latest court filing shows 鈥渢he 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.鈥�
Instead of 鈥渂uilding the energy projects we desperately need,鈥� billions of American taxpayer dollars are 鈥済oing to line the pockets of a small handful of fossil fuel company CEOs,鈥� Bender said, citing nearly $3 billion pledged by the Trump administration to in favor of fossil fuel projects such as natural gas and coal.
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