Lawsuit says Trump administration energy project cuts were illegal, hurt consumers
The government shutdown may be over, but its effects are not.
One of the lingering consequences is the cancellation of $7.5 billion in Department of Energy grants, including projects that would make electricity cleaner, more affordable and more reliable.
The cancellations — made by the Trump administration on the second day of the shutdown — terminated more than 300 financial awards covering hundreds of projects, including new wind and solar development as well as critical grid upgrades and efficiency programs expected to save money for consumers. For example, a project meant to bring down electricity bills in Oregon by building new power lines to better share the state’s wind energy lost its federal funding.
The canceled projects are only in states that did not vote for President Trump in the 2024 election. One grant for a clean energy project to provide back-up emergency power to a children’s hospital was terminated — because the pediatric hospital is in California.
“The administration’s cancellations were targeted at projects that happen to be in disfavored states and have nothing at all to do with the vital benefits of these projects in expanding clean affordable energy,” says Vickie Patton, general counsel for Environmental Defense Fund. “That targeting violates the U.S. Constitution, foundational American values, and basic decency in how we treat each other.”
On November 10, a coalition including Environmental Defense Fund, sued the Trump administration for canceling the grants.
The lawsuit names both Chris Wright, a former oil executive who now heads the Department of Energy, and Russell Vought, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, and asks that a judge restore funding.
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As the lawsuit makes its way through the court system, the uncertainty is already creating chaos and harm as impacted projects and organizations must decide between continuing to work at their own risk or shutting down immediately and laying off staff.
The terminations can have a cascade of impacts, including higher costs for families and businesses as projects expanding the supply of clean energy are derailed.
Even before these cancellations, the Trump administration had been banning federal permitting of new wind projects, erecting obstacles to solar, and rolling back federal support for solar and wind energy projects across the country, calling renewable energy expensive and unreliable. But EDF attorney Ted Kelly, an expert in clean energy, says that’s simply not true.
“Right now, when you look at what’s cheapest to put on the grid, it’s solar and wind and battery storage,” he says. “One cause of the high energy bills people are experiencing across the country is this intervention by the Trump administration to block and slow deployment of clean affordable energy.”
Even in oil-rich states like Texas, the economics of clean energy have become undeniable. “Texas has more solar and battery capacity than almost any other state,” Kelly notes. “That’s because it makes economic sense. It reduces costs.”
Beyond raising electricity bills for consumers, the sudden Department of Energy cancellations could also discourage future investment in American energy projects, clean or otherwise. “It’s not good to have a government that randomly stops projects whenever it decides it doesn’t like them or attacks those projects because of animus for the states where they are located,” Kelly says. “That kind of uncertainty will raise the cost of all kinds of projects in the future.”
“The grants terminated undermined projects in communities across the country where people are bridge-building by rolling up their sleeves, collaborating and expanding the availability of clean affordable solutions,” says Patton. “The solutions targeted make common sense no matter what state or zip code you are in, and we should be working together as a nation to make them successful in cutting costs and reducing pollution for all Americans.”