The Trump administration just dropped the hammer on clean energy funding, canceling 321 awards worth $7.56 billion across 16 states that all voted for Kamala Harris. The Department of Energy announced the sweeping cuts Wednesday night, targeting projects from California's $1.2 billion hydrogen hub to grid deployment programs across blue America. With legal challenges already flying and states scrambling to save their projects, this marks the most aggressive climate funding rollback yet.
The Department of Energy just delivered a $7.56 billion gut punch to clean energy projects across America's blue states. In a late Wednesday night announcement, the agency canceled 321 awards spanning everything from hydrogen hubs to grid modernization projects - and every single targeted state voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed his state's $1.2 billion hydrogen hub project got the axe, part of the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems that was supposed to anchor the West Coast's clean energy transition. The cuts don't stop there - Colorado's renewable projects, Connecticut's grid upgrades, and clean energy initiatives across 14 other Democratic strongholds all faced the chopping block.
Russell Vought, Trump's Office of Management and Budget director, didn't hide the political calculus behind the move. In a social media post, he declared "the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled," making clear this wasn't about fiscal responsibility but ideological warfare.
The timing reveals just how calculated this assault on clean energy has become. According to DOE data, 26% of the canceled awards were granted during the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day - a perfectly legal window that the Trump team is now weaponizing to justify the cuts. The affected programs originally came from Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Grid Deployment, and Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains offices.
This represents the Trump administration's most brazen climate funding rollback yet, but it's hardly the first. Back in May, DOE already canceled $3.7 billion in clean energy and manufacturing awards, hitting everyone from cement companies to chemical plants. Last week, the agency went even further, banning staff from using terms like "climate change" and "emissions" in official communications.
The legal battles are already heating up. Several award recipients have appealed the latest DOE cuts, joining a growing chorus of organizations suing to protect their funding. The Environmental Protection Agency faced similar challenges after canceling $20 billion in climate contracts, with mixed results in court. A federal district court initially ruled EPA's actions were "arbitrary and capricious," but an appellate court later sided with the government, calling the cancelations "proper oversight and management."
