White House budget director Russ Vought on Wednesday said the Trump administration will cancel almost $8 billion in federal funding for green projects, directly targeting 16 states that did not vote for President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
“Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY,” Vought posted on the social media site X.
“The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA,” he added.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond when asked what funding is being canceled, while the White House press shop in an automated response said its effort to monitor emails will be delayed due to ”staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown.”
Since taking office, Trump has moved to slash federal funding for renewable energy and climate action while trying to revive a sagging coal sector through additional financing, regulatory rollbacks and forcing coal-fired power plants to continue operating.
The announcement Wednesday makes clear Trump is leveraging his power over agencies to take aim at states that didn’t back him in the presidential election last year, but what remains unclear is exactly what funding DOE plans to cancel.
The department has been reviewing the nation’s portfolio of research and development projects for months now, freezing funding that was largely obligated, according to one agency staffer granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
“Lists of projects that are supposed to get cut have been wafting around the building for weeks,” said the staffer. “Most of the time, they are very partisan in terms of what states canceled projects are from. It’s just naked politics.”
Separately, Energy Secretary Chris Wright last week announced the agency is aiming to “return more than $13 billion in unobligated funds” that were authorized by Congress in the Biden administration to fund clean energy projects.
DOE has yet to clarify which funds Wright was referring to in that announcement.
Vought’s missive was met with applause from Republicans but pushback from Democrats who accused the Trump administration of playing politics with federal funding.
“Great!” Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of West Virginia wrote in response to Vought.
But Democrats including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts warned the purely political move would drive up electricity prices.
“Just naked and brazen corruption. All states represented by Democrats in the Senate. Time to stiffen our spines and demand that we only fund a government that obeys the law,” wrote Murphy.
“Let’s open our eyes. This isn’t a functioning democracy any longer when — in the middle of a high stakes funding fight — the President illegally suspends federal projects in states run by Democrats as a way to punish the political opposition,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphey (D) on X, in response to plans announced Wednesday to withhold billions of dollars from New York City infrastructure projects.
Reporter Andres Picon contributed.
