Trump Energy Department Cancels $7.5 Billion In Energy Projects, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That Federal Funds Were Still Reaching States That Voted Against Him

WASHINGTON. Acting two days after the federal government entered a shutdown, the Department of Energy announced Thursday that it had terminated 321 financial awards supporting 223 clean energy and infrastructure projects, sparing American taxpayers roughly $7.5 billion that might otherwise have gone toward the generation of energy.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained that the department had spent months reviewing the awards, many of which, he said, had been rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration, and had concluded that the projects did not adequately advance the nation's energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not deliver a positive return on the taxpayer dollar. The 223 cancelled projects, which included factories, battery plants, carbon-capture facilities, and grid upgrades, were determined to be the wrong kind of energy, namely the kind that had not yet been built.

Department officials confirmed that the savings had been distributed with care. Of the hundreds of projects cancelled, only about seven were located in states that had voted for the President, an outcome the department attributed to a rigorous and individualized financial review that happened to align almost perfectly with the 2024 electoral map. Recipients in states such as California, Michigan, and Massachusetts were assured that the decision reflected fiscal discipline rather than the result of any election.

"We looked at each award on its merits, and the merits kept pointing toward the same states," said one official within the Energy Department, who requested anonymity. "At a certain point you stop questioning the data."

Affected recipients were given 30 days to appeal the loss of funding they had already been promised, a window the department characterized as generous. Several of the cancelled projects had broken ground, hired workers, or begun ordering equipment on the understanding that the federal government honored agreements it had signed, a misunderstanding the administration moved quickly to correct.

At press time, the Energy Department had flagged an additional list of more than 600 projects worth $20 billion for further review, noting that the surest way to keep a clean energy project from ever failing was to ensure it never operated at all.