The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has terminated nearly $8 billion in green energy projects, it announced Thursday, determining “that they did not meet the economic, national security or energy security standards necessary to justify continued investment.” The cancellations delivered on President Trump’s agenda to “protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy,” the DOE argued.

The DOE terminated 321 awards for 223 projects, coming to a grand total of $7.56 billion. More than a quarter (26%) of these awards — amounting to $3.1 billion — were granted by the Biden administration between President Trump’s November 2024 victory and his January 2025 inauguration, the department said.

In May 2025, Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed program offices to request more information from awardees for a case-by-case review of awards that would “identify waste, safeguard taxpayer dollars, protect America’s national security, and advance President Trump’s commitment to deliver affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people.”

“Following a thorough, individualized financial review,” the DOE continued, it “determined that these 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.”

Although the DOE did not provide a complete list, the canceled awards include those for projects “intended to suck carbon dioxide from the sky” and California’s “state’s hydrogen hub, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, or ARCHES.” (“Clean hydrogen” involves splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen using renewable energy.)

In fact, most of the canceled awards were attached to green energy projects in Democrat-controlled states. White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Russ Vought called attention to this fact in a tweet. “The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.” However, some canceled projects were also identified in Tennessee, Florida, and Iowa.

The October 2 cuts were actually the second round of award cancellations announced by the DOE. On May 30, the department announced the cancellation of 24 awards totaling $3.7 billion, 16 of which were granted after Election Day.

The May award cancellations came amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) vigorous efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government, and they received pushback from congressional Democrats at the time.

This time, the DOE announced the award cancellations amid a government shutdown, as Democrats in Congress have plenty more pressing matters attracting their attention.

Although some news reports have tied the DOE cuts to the Trump administration’s hardball shutdown tactics, the only connection is the timing; the DOE did not rely on any shutdown rationale in cutting the grants, and the end of the shutdown will not reinstate them. However, award recipients do have 30 days to appeal the termination.

California Governor and prospective presidential candidate Gavin Newsom (D) reacted furiously to the cancellation of green energy awards in his state, “In Trump’s America, energy policy is set by the highest bidder, economics and common sense be damned,” he complained. “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.”

Newsom’s mention of “economics” in defense of green energy subsidies is curious, since any form of energy (or any product whatsoever) that is forced to rely on government subsidies is, by definition, not economically viable. If green energy is economic, it can survive without government subsidies.

Wright’s decision to cancel green energy spending comes days after the Energy Department and Interior Department jointly announced on Monday a plan to ramp up production of fossil fuels.

The Trump administration plans to reopen 13 million acres to coal mining, after new mining was forbidden by the Biden administration. The administration will also lower royalty rates, repeal regulations on the coal industry, and provide $625 million in government subsidies recommissioning and modernizing coal plants, expanding coal power into rural communities, and improving waste management systems to extend coal life.

The Trump administration has chosen its preferred fuel, and it has decided to turn away from costly green energy subsidies to less costly coal subsidies.