The U.S. Department of Energy commented that it went on to plan to cancel $7.56 billion in terms of financing for numerous energy projects, which, according to it, would not give sufficient returns to taxpayers.
The announcement from the department came hours after Russell Vought, the White House budget director, said in a post on X that the administration would go ahead and terminate almost $8 billion in climate-related funding across 16 states led by the Democrats, which includes the likes of California as well as New York.
This move happened to be a part of a broader, $26 billion investment freeze, which got unveiled on October 3, 2025, as President Donald Trump followed up on a threat to go ahead and make use of the federal government shutdown in order to target the Democratic priorities.
In one of the statements, which was issued late on October 3, 2025, the DOE said it would be cancelling 321 financial awards that supported 223 projects. Although it did not list the projects, it did say that the grants had been issued from six agency offices that were responsible for clean energy, grid deployment, efficiency, advanced research, and manufacturing, as well as fossil fuels.
According to Chris Wright, the Energy Secretary, President Trump had promised to protect taxpayer dollars and also expand the supply of affordable, dependable, and secure energy to America, and these cancellations go on to deliver on that commitment. He added that the Energy Department is going to continue reviewing the awards so as to ensure that every dollar goes on to work for the American people.
Recently, Bloomberg had reported that the planned cancellations went on to include the climate-related funding for proposed hydrogen hubs located across California as well as the Pacific Northwest.
Gavin Newsom, the California governor and, of course, a Democrat, went on to criticize the administration for taking this cancellation step towards its $1.2 billion commitment so as to fund his state’s hydrogen hub.
He added that they shall continue to pursue all-of-the-above clean energy plans that go on to power their future and at the same time also clean the air, no matter what the DC goes on to dictate.
