The Energy Department under a legal settlement filed in federal court this week has agreed to reinstate 11 Biden-era financial awards for clean energy technologies that it canceled last October.
The settlement marks the second time this year that companies and organizations whose awards were terminated by DOE claimed victory in court. In January, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ordered the department to reinstate seven awards totaling $28 million. Two more sweeping cases — one filed by a coalition of states including California and New York, and another filed by the University of California system — are pending.
The lawsuits stem from DOE’s cancellation of more than 300 awards during the government shutdown last fall. At the time, OMB director Russ Vought posted on X that nearly $8 billion in funding was being cut for projects in “blue states.” Plaintiffs in their lawsuits argued that DOE violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws by specifically targeting funding recipients based on their location in states that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
In January, Mehta agreed in a ruling in favor of the City of Saint Paul and other organizations. That decision paved the way for this week’s settlement — also signed by Mehta. The case was brought by plaintiffs led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. As part of the settlement, DOE agreed not to contest that “a primary reason” for deciding what grants to terminate was whether the awardee was in a “blue state.” The administration could still appeal, however.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has denied that politics played a role, most recently during a hearing on Wednesday in the House Science, Space, and Technology committee.
“No decisions were made on politics,” Wright told Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), who asked whether DOE planned to reinstate the rest of the canceled awards. “I keep hearing that charge. It’s bullshit. We’re gonna say it a million times. It’s not true. It’s actually false.”
Wright during the hearing didn’t comment on whether he would reinstate the hundreds of awards that remain terminated. DOE in April did send a list to Congress of nearly 2,000 awards it was retaining from the Biden era. However, a small number of those — only 18 — had appeared on the department’s official cancellation list in October targeting companies based in Democrat-led states.
Several of DOE’s largest projects awarded to Democrat-led states remain terminated, including the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub and the Arches Hydrogen Hub in California.
DOE didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
