The Department of Energy is canceling hundreds of clean energy projects in Democratic-led states, including in New Jersey and Delaware, as President Donald Trump’s administration uses the government shutdown to make additional federal workforce and funding cuts.
Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Wednesday that the department would end funding for projects in 16 states totaling $8 billion.
“The Left’s climate agenda is being canceled,” Vought posted on X.
In Delaware, that appears to includes two Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy grants, one for the University of Delaware, and one for Chemours, a chemical company, according to a source familiar with the termination plan.
It wasn’t immediately clear what specific work the grants were funding but Delaware University announced in 2021 two renewable energy related projects backed by $4 million in grants. One explored the decision-making process for adopting solar energy and electric vehicle use, and another is related to the efficiency of solar panels.
Chemours in 2024 announced DOE grants totalling $60 million awarded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support green hydrogen technology.
Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) blasted the cancellation in a statement to The Inquirer.
“President Trump promised ‘energy dominance,’ Now, he’s destroying projects that are the key to that dominance, setting back energy innovation and putting us behind our adversaries,” Coons said.
“Instead of working to end this shut down and protect Americans from the skyrocketing cost of health care, Trump and Republicans are choosing to inflict more pain – cutting jobs, raising energy prices, and making our nation less secure.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy‘s office declined to comment on what projects on his state were impacted.
A document circulating that appears to show terminated projects includes grants awarded to Rutgers University, Princeton University, and Moment Energy Inc., a company that repurposes electric vehicle batteries. The institutions did not immediately comment on whether they were included in the cuts.
The Energy Department’s website lists $7.5 billion in terminated grant awards spread across 223 projects but does not provide a full rundown of affected projects.
“Following a thorough, individualized financial review, DOE 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,” the department posting said.
The awards were issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Grid Deployment (GDO), Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Fossil Energy (FE), according to DOE.
Delaware’s freshman senator, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, called the announcement “a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to illegally withhold funds from states primarily led by Democrats,” in a statement to the Inquirer.
“This has the potential to severely harm our economy by eliminating good-paying energy jobs, and raising energy costs for the American people,” she said.