Trump administration admits it canceled $7.5bn in clean energy grants based on states' voting patterns
A court filing reveals the Energy Department terminated $7.5 billion in Biden-era clean energy grants solely because recipients were in Democratic states, despite earlier claims the move targeted waste.
The court filing
When the Trump administration scrapped more than $7.5 billion in clean energy grants last October, officials described it as an urgent step to protect taxpayers from wasteful spending. That rationale unraveled this month in a court filing, where government lawyers stated the cancellations were "based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state" (whether a Blue State or non-Blue State) and not on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance factor.
[The Department of Energy] accepts that neither the inclusion of the ARCHES grant nor any other grants in the October notice tranche was based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance-based factor.
The filing also conceded the department "will not contend that it looked beyond the prime grantee(s) to consider the political identity or geographic distribution of downstream beneficiaries of the grant funds."
Administration response
The Energy Department pushed back on Friday. A spokesperson called the reporting a "misrepresentation" and insisted "none of the termination decisions were based on political considerations." The acknowledgment of political identity, the spokesperson said, referred only to the timing of the announcement, not to the substance of the decisions.
That is a misrepresentation of the court filing. None of the termination decisions were based on political considerations.
The lawsuit
The admissions stem from a lawsuit filed by six University of California faculty and other researchers challenging the abrupt termination of already-awarded grants. The plaintiffs described the cancellations as part of a "political 'cost-cutting' agenda and ideological purity campaign."
- Trump administration cancels over $7.5 billion in Biden-era clean energy grants, framing it as a move against waste.
- Six University of California faculty and researchers file a lawsuit challenging the grant terminations.
- In court filing, Energy Department acknowledges cancellations were 'based solely' on states' political identity.
- White House finalizes rules to give president greater control over $1 trillion in annual federal grants.
Broader pattern
The episode illustrates how President Trump has used federal education, energy, health, housing, and infrastructure aid as leverage in his second term. Critics see the same playbook at work as the White House finalizes rules that would give the president greater control over more than $1 trillion in annual federal grants.
The risk that the Trump administration is willing to go to extreme lengths to politicize grant-making is not a hypothetical. If they are willing to be that blatant about it, then I think we should take seriously when they put forward a framework that would allow for the extreme politicization of grant-making across all of the federal government.
O'Connor, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a former Biden White House budget official, called the court filing a signal that the administration will follow through on its framework if given the chance.
