Federal lawyers said in a court filing that hundreds of clean-energy grants were included in an October cancellation notice based on the political identity of the recipient's state. The Energy Department acknowledged in Thakur v. Trump that grants totaling $7.6 billion were selected for an October termination notice solely according to whether the recipient or project location was in a politically defined blue state.
The affected projects were in 16 states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and included battery manufacturing, hydrogen development, electric-grid upgrades and carbon-capture work. The filing described 284 terminated grants and followed earlier government statements that the review was influenced by whether a recipient address was in a state that generally elects Democratic candidates.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright had previously described the cancellations as business decisions based on project merit and taxpayer value, while budget director Russell Vought publicly celebrated cuts to the prior administration's climate agenda. More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress requested an inspector-general investigation, and the Energy Department's internal watchdog opened a review in December.
The Energy Department did not provide AP with a new response before publication, and the court had not issued a final ruling on the legality or remedy for the cancellations.
Federal grant awards can be terminated under program and contract rules, but agencies remain subject to statutes, appropriations requirements, constitutional limits and administrative-law review. The affected states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
The filing distinguishes the criterion used to select the October tranche from any later project-by-project explanation, leaving the court to evaluate the administrative record and claimed authority. As of the edition cutoff, The public reporting did not include every grant file, the full administrative record or a final calculation of jobs, investment and energy capacity affected. The next scheduled factual records include the district court's treatment of the government's admission and the inspector general's findings and any grant restorations.