Political Scuttle: Motivations Behind DOE Project Terminations Revealed in Federal Court
Political falsehoods are common to every party, easy to promote and difficult to keep track of and correct. Truth is rarer and easier to submerge but often finds its way to the surface.
About 10 months ago, EnergyTech reported on the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Energy terminating $7.6 billion in decarbonization and low-carbon energy projects previously approved during the Biden Era.
In his statement released Oct. 1, 2025, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright then stated that the terminations of 280-plus projects, some of which were underway, was done to remove those with “inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard. President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable and secure energy.”
The Biden DOE-approved projects were awarded grants and loan guarantees which could help finance construction.
Forced into federal court, the DOE now admits that those terminations were not market-based but rather nearly purely political. The entire review was based on political calculation, according to the DOE’s own words in stipulation filed in May.
“This 624-grant list included proposals to terminate awards with a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in states that awarded their electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing Senators, and also awards with a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a State that awarded its electoral votes to President Trump in the 2024 election or has at least one Republican-caucusing Senator,’’ reads the federal court exhibit detailing DOE’s stipulation in a lawsuit brought into the Northern District of California federal court.
“With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing Senators (Blue States),” read the DOE stipulation, filed by DOE Principal Deputy General Counsel Jeff Novak.
The DOE won’t dispute the allegations that it acted purely based on political loyalty, according to Novak’s filing.
“DOE accepts that the differential treatment resulting in the October 2025 termination of Blue State grants and the non-termination of non-Blue State grants was not based on a rational connection between the recipient’s location and/or place of performance and DOE’s past or current agency priorities.”
Many of these projects supported by grants or loan guarantees were already moving forward at the time of the terminations by the Trump DOE. The technologies for these projects thrown into limbo or terminated included hydrogen, solar energy, carbon capture, electrification, utility interconnection and electric vehicle charging.
“Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people,” Secretary Wright said in October 2025, according to the EnergyTech story.
Although the Trump Administration has kept many Biden-era specific projects intact and progressing, many were killed along with the decades-old incentives for renewables and electric vehicles once the One Big Beautiful Bill Act became law with the president’s signature in 2025.
Trump’s DOE and Department of Interior also attempted to scuttle five major Atlantic Ocean offshore wind projects which were already under construction and some near completion. The developers filed suit federally, and federal judges issued injunctions stopping the DOI stop-work orders on the offshore projects.
Eventually, the Trump Administration gave up its plan to stop those offshore wind developments but have agreed to pay other developers not to pursue previously awarded projects not yet under construction.
About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.