A federal watchdog on Thursday said the Department of Energy may have broken the law by shifting around funding that Congress set aside for clean energy programs.
The Government Accountability Office found that DOE in fiscal year 2025 enacted funding for geothermal technology at four times the amount appropriated by Congress. Meanwhile, the office slashed funding for solar, wind, clean vehicles, and hydrogen technologies by hundreds of millions of dollars altogether.
GAO stopped short of determining that DOE broke the law, stating that it needed more information from the department. The watchdog said the department’s “over-obligations” of funding may stem from money carried over from previous fiscal years.
However, DOE didn’t respond to the agency’s questions. The department also didn’t respond to an inquiry from Latitude Media.
The investigation was requested by Democratic lawmakers Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), who in a statement accused DOE of ignoring the law because the Trump administration “has a vendetta against the most affordable energy sources.”
GAO’s findings are separate from another investigation launched by DOE’s Office of the Inspector General in December 2025 over the cancellation of nearly $8 billion for renewable energy projects and others aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Democrat-led states. That funding was authorized under the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021. A Washington, D.C. federal judge in January ordered DOE to reinstate a narrow number of those awards, totaling $28 million. A more sweeping lawsuit led by states including California and New York is still pending.
GAO’s investigation focused on appropriations law rather than the infrastructure law. Congress in fiscal year 2025 provided $118 million for geothermal under a temporary government spending law that extended funding for federal agencies at the same levels as in the previous year. DOE boosted that to nearly $489 million. Congress allocated $318 million for solar, which the department slashed to $41.9 million; and $137 million to wind, which DOE cut to nearly $30 million.
Those changes fell under “energy efficiency and renewable energy” programs. GAO also found smaller funding discrepancies in fiscal 2025 across nuclear, fossil energy, and science programs, including increased spending on advanced reactors, oil, gas, and critical minerals.
