On October 1, 2025, the first day of a government shutdown over a debate around Affordable Care Act spending, Russ Vought took to Twitter to explain that the Trump administration was canceling “nearly $8 billion in green new scam funding to fuel the left’s climate agenda.” The 321 canceled awards, the Office of Management and Budget director pointed out, were all for projects led by companies based in a Democrat-led state.
One year later, over half of those terminated awards are still trapped in limbo. Of the original 321 canceled awards, several had their terminations reinstated by the agency, and 18 have been officially reinstated via court cases, in part because DOE stipulated that an awardees location in a “blue” state was a primary reason for termination. More than a dozen other awards are covered by lawsuits that are still pending.
However, more than 200 others who disputed their terminations with DOE, 61% of all terminated awards, are still stuck in that process with the agency. That’s according to a new report from the DOE Alumni Network and Lawyers for Good Government, which analyzes federal spending data.
According to the report, even the already reinstated projects, some of which are among the nearly 2,000 that landed on the agency’s “retained” list back in April, are still struggling to access funding; 69% of DOE’s “retained” projects have still received negligible new funds, and 44% have received no funds. The agency has disbursed just 1% of the total committed funds for those projects since the April announcement.
That’s partly because the process of releasing funds is proving arduous. As Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Congress in testimony about DOE’s review of awards, many of the selected projects are being modified, which includes a “thorough financial review, analysis of the project’s merits, and careful evaluation of milestones.”
According to the report, one awardee went back and forth with DOE for seven rounds of edits to the project’s statement of objectives, which establishes milestones and activities. Changes included removing references to diversity, equity, and inclusion, community benefits, and renewable energy, among others. Given the historic labor shortage at DOE, following mass layoffs across the agency early last year, moving through that process for the thousands of outstanding awards is a bottleneck.
The report points specifically to the five retained federal clean hydrogen hubs, of which only one has recorded a formal contract modification since the retention decisions. Across all of these hubs, DOE has disbursed just $2 million of the $112 million planned for their current phase. “This slow spend rate demonstrates that administrative delays continue to hamper Hub project execution, and that DOE has not given the Hubs permission to move forward with building projects,” the report notes.
Ghosted projects
Today’s report follows a six-month update on the status of agency awards, published in April, which categorized DOE awards as terminated, retained, or “ghosted” by the agency. That third bucket of awards includes those that haven’t been formally terminated, but also haven’t received any additional funding. As of late August, that group has 1,731 selected projects with $3.9 billion in funding.
Around 34% of those ghosted awards were for projects targeting energy affordability efforts, like $225 million for Tribal home electrification and $1 billion to help states implement updated building energy codes, with the goal of reducing electricity costs. In both cases, DOE has yet to disburse significant funds.
And, despite the blue-state focus of last October’s terminations, the ghosted and terminated awards are located in districts represented by Democrats and Republicans alike. For example, Urban Electric Power, a zinc battery manufacturer in New York state, was planning to use its $6.5-million award to build two 12-hour energy storage systems (including one at a hospital) in a swing district currently represented by Republican Mike Lawler. Meanwhile in purple Michigan, a $35.8-million grant awarded to the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity would have supported transmission workforce development and construction in two counties, including in a district where Republican Tom Barrett is running for re-election.
