The Energy Department said on Wednesday night that it was terminating more than $7.5 billion in Biden-era awards for hundreds of energy projects, with the vast majority located in states led by Democrats.
The move underscored how the Trump administration appeared to be using the government shutdown to punish its political opponents. President Trump said this week that if Democrats in Congress did not vote for a funding bill to keep the government open, he could “do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them.”
In its Wednesday announcement, the Energy Department did not specify which projects were being cut. But according to an agency document reviewed by The New York Times, the list of canceled projects includes major upgrades to electrical grids in California and Minnesota, as well as large hubs to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuels in California and the Pacific Northwest.
The vast majority of the 321 canceled awards would have gone toward projects in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington, the document showed. Those states all have Democratic governors and senators.
In a news release, the Energy Department said it had determined that the projects “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 move met swift condemnation from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, where one of the largest canceled projects had been projected to create more than 220,000 jobs. “In Trump’s America, energy policy is set by the highest bidder, economics and common sense be damned,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement. “We’ll continue to pursue an all-of-the-above clean-energy strategy that powers our future and cleans the air, no matter what D.C. tries to dictate.”
Before the Energy Department announced the cancellations, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, suggested in social media posts that they were imminent. “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled,” he wrote on X.
Mr. Vought did not provide details, and the Energy Department did not issue the news release until several hours later. In the meantime, many state officials, members of Congress and energy executives were scrambling on Wednesday to figure out which projects would be affected.
Two of the largest canceled awards would have gone toward projects in California and the Pacific Northwest that focused on the production, transportation and storage of clean hydrogen, which has the potential to produce steel and fertilizer, or to power trucks, without producing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Congress had authorized roughly $8 billion for so-called hydrogen hubs as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021. The Biden administration had awarded roughly $1 billion apiece to seven such hubs across the country.
None of the hubs in Republican-controlled states such as West Virginia, Texas and Louisiana were affected by the latest round of cancellations.
Greg Keoleian, a professor at the University of Michigan whose research focuses on hydrogen, said the canceled projects would have helped the United States compete with China and Europe, which have more mature hydrogen industries. “We need to be investing in clean energy technologies like hydrogen for global competitiveness,” Dr. Keoleian said.
Also targeted for cancellation was a $464 million grant awarded to Minnesota to help improve the connections between two large regional electrical grids in the Midwest and Great Plains. That project was aimed at making it easier to add more renewable energy to the grid and reducing the risk of blackouts. Proponents said it would have helped reduce electricity costs across a wide region, including in Republican-led states.
Brad Plumer is a Times reporter who covers technology and policy efforts to address global warming.
Maxine Joselow covers climate change and the environment for The Times from Washington.
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