The Trump administration is canceling about $8 billion in grants for energy projects in mostly Democratic-led states — but is allowing funding to continue for similar projects in states that voted for Trump.
The canceled grants, which were first announced by the Office of Management and Budget’s director, Russell Vought, on Wednesday, don’t total anywhere close to all of the energy investments made by the Biden administration, which Vought called “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.”
For now, energy project money appears to be continuing to flow to companies and institutions located in red and swing states, even though the work these institutions are doing is very similar to the work that was cut, according to a NOTUS analysis of hundreds of projects across the country, including the latest cancellations.
For example, the administration canceled $460 million in funding for the Democrat-led state of Minnesota to build much-needed interregional transmission lines (power lines that connect the country’s separated parts of the grid).
It left in place a $700 million grant from the same program that will connect the eastern and western U.S. grids in Montana, a state that voted for Trump and is led by Republicans.
The administration also canceled funding to improve the resilience of the power grid in Hawaii from wildfires and other extreme weather, as well as $40 million in funding for a project to build a resilient backup microgrid for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the island of Oahu.
It did not cut the $160 million that was awarded in the same funding round from the same program for Georgia Power to make the state’s electric grid more resilient.
And of the 17 projects the Department of Energy awarded for battery recycling and reprocessing innovations, the list of cuts included just three: one in Colorado and two in California. There’s no obvious difference between those three projects and the remaining 14 that appear to still be funded, beyond the fact that some of the others are located at national labs or in states that either voted for Trump or are led by Republicans, like Utah, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
And while the administration canceled billions in funding for hydrogen hubs in California and the Pacific Northwest, hubs that touch states including Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Ohio, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and Indiana appear fine for now.
The specific cuts suggest the Trump administration is using its grant authorities to pressure Democrats to vote for the government funding bill. There is discussion on the Hill between some Democrats and Republicans in the states affected by the cuts about pushing for a restoration of the funds as part of a deal to end the shutdown, one source familiar with the situation told NOTUS.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested as much to Fox News on Thursday when asked about the program cuts.
“Pass the clean, continuing resolution and all of this goes away,” she said, directed at Democrats.
The Trump administration’s announcement sowed confusion for the companies and states affected. After Vought announced Wednesday that about $8 billion in energy cuts were coming, the affected states did not receive notice of any official cuts until the following day. Some local authorities said they have still not received official notice from the DOE, including the state of Colorado and the California Energy Commission.
Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said he had lunch with Energy Secretary Chris Wright “minutes before” the cancellations were announced, but received no warning.
“He had neither the courtesy nor the care to mention that this was coming, and that it included 10 projects in my state, projects that affect real jobs and real families,” Heinrich said in a statement. “That tells you everything you need to know about how this Administration operates: in the dark and with no respect for the people hurt by their decisions.”
The grant cancellations span projects aimed to improve electrical grid infrastructure, innovate on battery recycling, create new forms of energy storage, lower buildings’ energy usage and advance hydrogen and fuel cell technology. Many of the projects would carry benefits and jobs outside of the states they are based in, especially those that would affect the resilience and performance of the nation’s aging electric grid.
A number of recipients are losing multiple projects, including some institutions whose goals could serve the Trump administration’s interests. GTI Energy, which is focused on modernizing the natural gas industry, lost 13 grants. Both GE Vernova, a maker of wind and gas turbines, and the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit electricity research organization, lost 11. The University of Illinois, which has several energy research projects funded by the DOE, lost eight.
Many of the projects on this list have already begun operations, which means the money that has been distributed for these projects so far will be wasted if operations halt, another source familiar with the situation told NOTUS.
Lindsay VanLaningham, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, a community-owned electric utility, said in a statement to NOTUS that as of Thursday evening, the DOE had not yet notified them of any changes to their grant, which funds “a portion of a project already in flight.”
Some of the canceled awards are listed by the Energy Department as targeting blue states, but the impacted projects themselves are located in red states. For instance, a $19.7 million federal award to IBM related to methane emissions research is categorized under awards cancelled to entities New York — but a description of the project published in 2024 said it will be carried out entirely in western states that voted for Trump, including Utah, Montana and Alaska.
There are more areas for confusion: The list of cancellations includes some, but not all, grants that the DOE first announced in May that it was canceling, primarily for clean energy industrial demonstrations.
And some of the affected entities are getting information that conflicts from the DOE press release. The department says entities have 30 days to appeal the cancellations, but one affected group told NOTUS their instructions say they only have 10 days to appeal.
Some of the DOE cuts also appear to go against stated Trump administration priorities. For example, the administration has issued executive orders and memos emphasizing the importance of mineral development and extraction in the United States. Recycling used batteries is one way to increase the availability of minerals and metals like lithium, but three of the grants in that program have been axed.
Some companies have confirmed with NOTUS that they are now receiving cancellation notices. Those include Smartville, a California-based company that was building a long-duration battery storage project, and Sublime Systems, which was originally told in May its grants had been cancelled and has been in the appeals process since then.
“Regardless of the political fighting in Washington, D.C., hydrogen remains a viable product for energy dominance and represents a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars that generates millions of jobs. While we are disappointed in the Department of Energy’s decision to cut funding for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub, there is still immense opportunity for our region to finish what we started,” a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen hub said.