In a striking court filing, the Trump administration has conceded that its cancellation of hundreds of federal green energy grants last year was driven purely by the political affiliation of the recipient states. The admission, made by Department of Energy (DOE) attorney Jeff Novak, marks a rare explicit acknowledgment of partisan motivations in federal funding decisions.
According to the filing, the DOE initially identified 624 grants for potential termination. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) then selected 284 of those to include in an October cancellation tranche. Novak wrote that all but one of those 284 grants went to states that voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and had two Democratic-caucusing senators. The remaining 340 grants on the DOE’s list have not been canceled.
“DOE accepts that the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” Novak wrote. He added that the selections were not “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor.”
The filing contradicts previous public statements by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who told Congress repeatedly that while the timing of the cancellations may have been political, the actual selection was not. A DOE spokesperson, Ben Dietderich, maintained that Wright’s statements “are still correct,” insisting that “none of the termination decisions were based on political considerations.”
Democrats pounced on the filing, framing it as a vindication of their long-standing accusations. In a joint statement, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the top energy appropriations Democrats, said: “This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: it terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election.” They added that the admission revealed “the president and his team corruptly abused their power to kill good jobs and punish hard-working families because of their political views.”
The controversy echoes broader tensions over the administration’s use of federal funding as a political lever. In a separate legal battle, Democratic states sued Trump over FEMA grant conditions tied to elections and immigration, alleging similar partisan targeting. The administration has also faced criticism for policies threatening SNAP funding in 41 states over error rates, further fueling accusations of selective enforcement.
Last year, OMB Director Russell Vought announced the cancellation of nearly $8 billion in green energy-related funding, specifically naming states like California, New York, and Illinois—all of which backed Harris. The filing confirms that those states were targeted for their political leanings, not for any flaws in the grant programs.
Democrats also took aim at Wright’s credibility. “Secretary Wright swore up and down for months that these project terminations had absolutely nothing to do with politics, and now his lawyers are declaring that, in fact, politics was the only consideration,” Murray and Kaptur said.
The filing builds on an earlier acknowledgment by Trump administration lawyers that political affiliation played a role, but the new document goes further, stating that politics was the sole criterion. The case continues to unfold as legal challenges to the cancellations proceed.
