The Department of Energy said Wednesday night it was canceling 321 awards worth $7.56 billion that were largely focused on clean energy.
The agency hasn’t released a list of the 223 affected projects and, at the time of publication, it had not provided one. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said one of the canceled projects included $1.2 billion for the state’s hydrogen hub, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems.
Other states affected include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
The states with canceled projects were confirmed in a tweet from Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump. He teased the cancellations earlier yesterday, adding that “the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”
All 16 states voted for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, and many are controlled by Democrats at the state level.
The awards were originally granted by the office for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Grid Deployment, and Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.
The Department of Energy said 26% of the awards were granted between Election Day and Inauguration Day in January; the president’s authority doesn’t end after Election Day, but runs until Inauguration Day.
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The awardees have 30 days to appeal the decision.
The Trump administration has made no secret that it wants to undermine any transition away from fossil fuels. Last week, the Department of Energy banned staffers from using certain words, including “climate change” and “emissions.”
In May, the agency canceled $3.7 billion worth of clean energy and manufacturing awards. Those cancelations spanned a broad list of industries, from metal manufacturing and cement companies to power plant operators and chemical plants run by fossil fuel giants.
The Trump administration’s aggressive cancelations have prompted many awardees to sue the government to retain the awards. The Environmental Protection Agency, which was quick to cancel contracts worth $20 billion, has been an early target of legal action. So far, the plaintiffs have had mixed success.
While a federal district court said the EPA’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” an appellate court ruled in favor of the agency, saying that the contract cancelations were valid and showed the government exercising “proper oversight and management.”
In the instance of the recent DOE cancelations, several award recipients have already appealed the decision, the agency confirmed.
