A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by rescinding $7.6 billion in clean energy grants, a move that disproportionately affected states that supported Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
The grants, which funded hundreds of projects across 16 states, included initiatives such as battery manufacturing plants, hydrogen technology developments, grid modernization efforts, and carbon capture programs.
The Department of Energy (DOE) stated that it terminated the projects after a review concluded that some did not align with national energy priorities or were not economically viable. Russell Vought, the White House budget director, framed the cuts on social media as a political statement, saying, “the Left’s climate agenda is being canceled.”
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U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected that justification, ruling the administration violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
“Defendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily — if not exclusively — based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024,” Mehta wrote in a 17-page opinion. The judge noted that the administration offered no explanation for how intentionally targeting recipients based on political support could “rationally advance their stated government interest.”
The ruling marked the administration’s second major legal defeat over energy policy in a single day. Another federal judge allowed work on a large offshore wind farm in Rhode Island and Connecticut to continue, providing at least a temporary reprieve for the renewable energy sector amid President Donald Trump’s attempts to halt the project.
DOE spokesman Ben Dietderich defended the department’s review process, saying officials “stand by our review process, which evaluated these awards individually and determined they did not meet the standards necessary to justify the continued spending of taxpayer dollars. The American people deserve a government that is accountable and responsible in managing taxpayer funds.”
States affected by the cancellations, according to AP’s report, included California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. All 16 had supported Harris in the 2024 election.
Among the most significant cuts were up to $1.2 billion for California’s hydrogen hub aimed at advancing hydrogen production and technology, and up to $1 billion for a Pacific Northwest hydrogen initiative. By contrast, a Texas hydrogen project and a multi-state program covering West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were spared, according to clean energy advocates who reviewed DOE records.
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The city of St. Paul and several environmental organizations had sued after losing grants. Last fall, in an interview with One America News, former President Trump suggested he could target projects favored by Democrats, saying, “I’m allowed to cut things that never should have been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”
Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, praised the court’s ruling. She said it confirmed that the Trump DOE “vindictively canceled projects for clean affordable energy that just happened to be in states disfavored by the Trump administration, in violation of the bedrock Constitutional guarantee that all people in all states have equal protection under the law.”
Patton added that the administration’s actions “violated the Constitution, foundational American values, and imposed high costs on the American people who rely on clean, affordable energy for their pocketbooks and for healthier lives.”
Anne Evens, CEO of Elevate Energy, another group that lost funding, said the decision would help preserve clean energy affordability while supporting job creation. “Affordable energy should be a reality for everyone, and the restoration of these grants is an important step toward making that possible,” she said.
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