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The Department of Energy (DOE) said on Oct. 2 that it had terminated 321 federal grants funding 223 projects, amounting to about $7.56 billion in cuts.
Under the leadership of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the department conducted a review of its federal grants to identify project plans that are “not economically viable” and do “not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs,” the DOE said in a statement.
About 84 grants were found to have been rushed through during the final months of the Biden administration following Election Day in November 2024, Wright said, adding that they were set apart by “inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard.”
Many of these grants were authorized to receive funding under the Biden-era 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
“President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment,” Wright said. “Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people.”
The awardees have been given 30 days to appeal the termination.
Earlier on Sept. 30, Wright told CNBC that to ensure that the United States can continue to lead the artificial intelligence race and reindustrialize to secure local jobs, “America must add at least 100 [gigawatts] of firm power in the next five years.”
A day earlier, the department announced a $625 million investment to “expand and reinvigorate” the domestic coal industry and ensure consistent baseload power to keep Americans’ “lights on without interruption,” a reliability in power supply that renewables haven’t been able to guarantee.
The DOE’s funding review process was triggered in May, when Wright issued a secretarial memorandum titled “Ensuring Responsibility for Financial Assistance” to bring the department in line with President Donald Trump’s policy agenda to deliver affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people.
The review process identified awardees that “did not meet the economic, national security, or energy security standards necessary to justify continued investment,” the DOE said in its Oct. 2 statement.
According to Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, the projects are from 16 states, including California and New York. All of the states are led by Democrats.
“Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled,” Vought said in an Oct. 1 post on X.
Among the grant recipients affected are Navajo Transitional Energy Company, Xcel Energy Services Inc., the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, ReJoule Inc., and various private and public state universities.
Xcel Energy told The Epoch Times that it is reviewing the announcement to see which of its projects that receive DOE funding will be affected.
“So far, we have identified the demonstration project for long-duration, iron-air battery storage technology at coal plants in Minnesota and Colorado as being impacted. We will continue to work with our state and federal partners to understand the impact of this announcement,” a spokesperson for Xcel said.
Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association expressed disappointment in the funding cuts.
“With or without federal support, this industry will continue to drive the innovation and infrastructure needed to fortify America’s energy economy,” the company said in a statement.
In May, Wright had already identified 24 projects, together receiving $3.7 billion in taxpayer funding, for cancellation. Most of the projects were for carbon capture and sequestration, or decarbonization initiatives.
Infrastructure Cuts
Vought said in a separate post earlier on Oct. 1 that the Trump administration has frozen about $18 billion in funding for construction projects in New York City because of the jurisdiction’s unconstitutional promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said the impacted projects—the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Avenue Subway project—are “under administrative review.”
New York City is represented by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who are engaged with Republicans in Congress and Trump in a deadlock over federal funding.
The U.S. deficit had climbed to a record $1.97 trillion by September, despite the Treasury Department bringing in $165 billion from Trump’s tariffs.
