Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics - AP News

What the report says

The Associated Press reports that the Trump administration has acknowledged in court filings that it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants for hundreds of projects solely because the recipients were in states that backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The filing concerns 16 states and conflicts with earlier public explanations from Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials, who had described the cancellations as decisions tied to energy priorities, project viability or taxpayer value.

According to AP, the Energy Department announced last October that 321 awards tied to 223 projects would be ended. The affected work included battery manufacturing, hydrogen development, grid improvements and carbon-capture efforts. The canceled projects were in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state.

Democratic lawmakers and environmental organizations criticized the filing, arguing that the administration used federal power to punish states based on politics. AP reported that Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, senior Democrats on appropriations panels, said the admission confirmed what they had long suspected and called for Republican lawmakers to help hold the administration accountable. The Energy Department did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.

The dispute is being litigated in federal court, including in a case identified as Thakur v. Trump. AP also noted that government lawyers had earlier said in a separate lawsuit that the selection of grants was influenced by whether a recipient was in a Democratic-leaning state. The department’s internal watchdog began an investigation in December after Democratic members of Congress requested a review.