Energy Secretary Chris Wright is defending the Trump administration’s decision to cancel billions of dollars for climate-related projects — mostly in blue states so far — despite state officials and legal experts insisting the move runs afoul of the law.
Wright said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that his agency made the ultimate decision to cut the funding after a monthslong review of about 2,400 projects by a small group of seven or eight DOE officials who focused on “business conditions.” The secretary also said more cuts, including in red states, are on the horizon.
The cuts were first revealed when White House budget director Russ Vought announced on X that the administration was axing nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam funding,” and listed 16 states that did not vote for President Donald Trump in the presidential election, including California and New York.
But Wright said DOE made the call to cancel the funds and defended the decision when asked about criticism that the U.S. government is backtracking on legally binding contracts tied to bipartisan spending. The secretary also asserted that a number of the projects failed to meet critical milestones, went bankrupt or were late in delivering paperwork. The majority of projects reviewed, he said, have continued to be funded.
“All of them have cancellation clauses, if they’re not in the interest of the taxpayers, if they’re not a good expenditure of the money, you always have the ability to cancel these projects,” said Wright. “There is a long list of problems with projects that get canceled.”
Wright refuted that the move was political or tied to the shutdown when asked about projects like hydrogen hubs seeing funding cut in blue states. “As this fall goes on, you’ll see cancellations in red and blue states,” he said.
Funding for the canceled “projects will not be restored” after the shutdown ends, he said.
But David Super, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said the move indeed violates the Impoundment Control Act and flies in the face of legal precedent, even if DOE opts to cancel funds in red states.
“This is unlawful,” said Super.
Super pointed to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the1975 case of Train v. City of New York, which held that the president must distribute appropriations enacted by Congress.
“Nothing in the statutes appropriating those funds makes having a Republican governor a condition of participation,” said Super. “In addition, the Supreme Court has held that the federal government may not interfere in the internal structures of state governments without express, unambiguous statutory authority.”
Super added that a 1991 decision — Gregory v. Ashcroft — confirmed that whom a state chooses as its governor is certainly an aspect of its internal structure.
Critics of the cuts could also make the argument in court that the cancellations constitute a breach of contract or — if the administration doesn’t properly explain its reasoning — a violation of federal law governing administrative procedure, said Dan Farber, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
A judge could also find that the Trump administration canceled the funds as a form of illegal political retribution, Farber said.
“Hard to prove,” he said, “although sometimes Trump provides ammunition himself.”
The cancellations announced Wednesday were largely targeted at states won by former Vice President Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election, including more than $2 billion for two clean hydrogen hubs on the West Coast and more than $1 billion for projects in DOE’s grid office.
Bolstering some of the cancellations is a new Department of Transportation interim rule ending the practice of setting aside infrastructure contract funds for “disadvantaged business entities,” including minority- and women-owned businesses.
DOT said the approach conflicted with the Supreme Court’s decision outlawing consideration of race in college admissions, among other cases. The 2023 ruling threw a wrench in the Biden administration’s effort to prioritize pollution cleanups in predominantly Black communities.
The terminated funds from DOE’s grid office include $464 million to the Minnesota Department of Commerce to support new transmission for renewables. In an emailed statement, the department called the administration’s decision illegal, saying it was “deeply concerned.”
“This kind of action directly undermines the U.S. Department of Energy’s stated priorities: ensuring energy abundance and maintaining affordability for Americans. We are working closely with state and federal partners to assess the situation and protect Minnesota’s interests,” the Minnesota department said.
The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. DOE also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘E-bike lanes in Portlandia’
The Trump administration’s move to reverse Biden-era funding decisions has set off fireworks on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have argued that the move is illegal.
“Donald Trump’s decision to cancel 223 energy projects in 21 states was nakedly political, unhinged, and unlawful,” Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said in a statement. “And now those cancelled energy projects have become the latest casualty of Trump’s vengeful attack on the American people.”
DOE late Wednesday revealed it’s terminating 321 financial awards worth approximately $7.56 billion.
DOE said the awards support 223 projects in its grid, renewable and fossil offices, as well as in the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.
The list of terminated projects, which were released by DOE on Friday, show air capture and hydrogen hubs will be hit.
Wright during the CNN interview said a comprehensive list of all projects being canceled will be released in the “next few weeks,” and blasted the Biden administration for making “incredible, irresponsible deployment of taxpayer money.”
“Should American taxpayers really fund decarbonizing Uber Eats in San Francisco or building e-bike lanes in Portlandia?” asked Wright. “$600 million to further subsidize construction of unreliable, expensive electricity sources in California?
“California can do what it wants, but the 49 other states’ taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing that,” he added.
Wright insisted that red states will see cuts and have in the past and that the agency is reviewing all projects, including hydrogen hubs, across the nation.
“The decisions on the others haven’t been announced yet … they’re announced as the evaluations get done,” he said before blasting high electricity costs in California. “All of the hydrogen hubs are being evaluated through the same critical lens.”
He added that there is eight days of funding left for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. If the funding runs out, DOE will have to rely on an “emergency shutdown program” with limited staff, according to Wright. “It is highly disruptive,” he said of the shutdown .
Reporter Mike Lee contributed.
