This week, the Department of Energy canceled nearly eight billion dollars worth of awards. The Trump administration presented the move as an effort to protect fossil fuels at the expense of renewable energy. However, documents obtained by TechCrunch reveal the situation is more complex than that simple message.
The agency has not released an official list of the canceled awards, but TechCrunch obtained and analyzed a document detailing the 321 contracts the Department of Energy is seeking to undo. The analysis shows that not all of the canceled projects focused on renewable energy. Two projects listed in the document, one for 300 million dollars to Colorado State University and another for 210 million dollars to the Gas Technology Institute, would have helped oil and gas producers reduce methane emissions from their wells. The Gas Technology Institute, a research organization that mostly caters to the natural gas industry, had a dozen awards canceled, totaling 417 million dollars.
Carbon capture and removal projects also took a significant hit. Ten of the twenty-one projects in this category were canceled, representing around 200 million dollars in funding.
It is true that states which voted for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election were hit hardest by the cancellations. California lost the most, with at least 2.2 billion dollars worth of contracts canceled. Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oregon each had around half a billion dollars’ worth of awards canceled, while New York State lost at least 309 million dollars. In contrast, states that voted for Donald Trump tended to have contracts canceled worth single-digit millions of dollars.
One of the largest canceled awards was a 467 million dollar grant to the state of Minnesota. Awarded as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, the money was intended to revamp electrical grid interconnections throughout seven states in the Midwest. When complete, the project would have unlocked around 28 gigawatts of new generating capacity, mostly from solar and wind power. For context, the world’s entire data center fleet currently draws an estimated 58 gigawatts.
Another large award, worth 630 million dollars, would have revamped California’s electrical grid by testing advanced conductors and dynamic line rating devices to increase transmission capacity. This project was intended to be a showcase for grid modernization that could be applied throughout the country.
Yet another grid modernization project would have installed a transmission line to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. The tribes have roughly half a dozen renewable energy projects waiting on a better grid connection, which the now-canceled 250 million dollar award would have enabled. The project would also have strung fiber-optic lines along the transmission line’s path, bringing high-speed data to a rural part of the state.
An expert noted that the recipients in blue states whose projects survived may be more aligned with the current administration’s priorities. Some of the smaller awards might have been canceled regardless of the political shift, as the United States often funds many energy innovation projects with the understanding that not all will succeed. This approach involves taking many lower-cost chances to see what moves forward regionally, technologically, and economically.
There are also signs that some projects are relocating to countries like Canada where government support and policies are perceived as more predictable. This shift is already having an impact on private sector investments. The situation raises larger questions about the stability of the Department of Energy and its ability to be a predictable partner to U.S. businesses.