Days after the Trump administration made headlines for canceling nearly $8 billion in clean energy projects across 16 blue states, the Department of Energy is considering terminating an additional 300 projects totaling more than $15.8 billion, according to a leaked list reviewed by The Times.
The list includes five of seven projects to develop clean hydrogen energy in the United States awarded under President Biden. Funding for the other two so-called “hydrogen hubs” was terminated last week, including California’s project, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, or ARCHES.
The list is not an official document but comes via credible sources from inside the administration.
Other potential terminations include a $500-million award to General Motors to convert an existing vehicle assembly plant in Michigan to electric vehicle production, and two major carbon capture projects in Indiana and North Dakota, which face cuts of $500 million and $350 million, respectively. (Carbon capture is the process of capturing planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from industrial releases and storing or reusing them before they can enter the atmosphere.)
The list began circulating after the administration canceled more than 300 awards last week. Those projects were all located in states that did not vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, which Democrats were quick to denounce as politically motivated.
The latest round of rumored cuts appears to be less partisan. Texas would take the largest loss at 54 terminated projects totaling nearly $2.4 billion, including $50 million for the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub, intended to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio and Virginia each would lose more than $1 billion in awards.
But taken as a whole, no state would take a bigger hit than California. The Golden State is facing a total of 93 cancellations — including last week’s official cuts and the rumored cuts currently in the pipeline — totaling $3.5 billion, more than any other state by a wide margin.
The Trump administration, which heavily promotes fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, has said the cancellations will help save Americans’ money. The projects terminated last week did not “adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars,” the Energy Department said.
Department officials on Wednesday said they could not confirm the list of additional pending cuts.
“No determinations have been made other than what has been previously announced,” department spokesman Ben Dietderich said in a statement. “As [U.S. Energy] Secretary [Chris] Wright made clear last week, the Department continues to conduct an individualized and thorough review of financial awards made by the previous administration. Rest assured, the Department is hard at work to deliver on President Trump’s promise to restore affordable, reliable, and secure energy to the American people.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla — who is urging Wright to restore funding for the California hydrogen hub — said in a phone call that “time will tell” whether the projects on the leaked list are ultimately cut, but that the potential defunding of all seven U.S. hydrogen hubs is consistent with the Trump administration’s agenda. Hydrogen, if generated cleanly, produces only water as a byproduct. It’s a growing source of energy that could replace fossil fuels in some industry and transportation uses.
“Anything they can do to bolster fossil fuels is going to be a priority for them,” Padilla said, adding that hydrogen and other clean and renewable energy sources have been “in the crosshairs of the administration since day one.”
The cuts not only create greater uncertainty for industry and investors, but also drive up costs and move the U.S. further from the energy dominance Trump has championed, Padilla said.
“At a time when energy costs are going up for households across the country, you would want more supply into the grid, not less,” he said. “And they’re withdrawing projects that would bring not just clean energy, but just more energy, onto the grid.”
Experts noted that even cancellations in blue states would affect voters of various political affiliations. In California, for example, many elements of the planned ARCHES hydrogen hub are in the Central Valley, which largely supported Trump in 2024.
The latest list of potential cuts stretches across approximately 190 Democratic and 136 Republican congressional districts, according to a Times analysis. Combined with last week’s cuts, however, the overall outcome would skew blue with funding slashed in 486 Democratic districts compared with 160 Republican ones.
“These sweeping funding cuts will have far-reaching consequences — with virtually no region unscathed,” read a statement from Conrad Schneider, a senior director at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.
Schneider noted that the U.S. has spent the last several years investing in innovative energy projects that can support economic growth, lower household costs and meet rising energy demands. Federal grants and loans play an essential role in that work, he said.
“By abruptly canceling funding for several hundred energy projects,” he added, “the U.S. risks ceding American energy leadership and signals that U.S. innovation is not a priority.”
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