Marcy Kaptur said the Doe Clean Energy Grant Lawsuit shows the Department of Energy admitted nearly 300 energy projects were terminated because their states did not vote for the President in the 2024 election. In Toledo, OH, she said the filing showed the grants were cut for “no reason other than” state politics.
Patty Murray said the same court filing also undercut months of denials from Secretary Chris Wright. She said his lawyers now say politics was the only consideration, after Wright had repeatedly said the terminations had nothing to do with politics.
Russ Vought’s October 1 notice
On October 1, 2025, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought posted that nearly $8 Billion in funding for cost-cutting energy projects were being terminated. He listed CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, and WA as the states where the projects were located.
Hours later, the Department of Energy announced hundreds of projects had been terminated. The later filing said none of the grants were cut for any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based reason, and the Department said it would not look beyond the prime grantee to weigh the political identity or location of downstream beneficiaries.
House.gov filing response
House.gov framed the public filing as an admission that politics was the only consideration. Kaptur said the Administration terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects because the states were not among those that voted for the President in the 2024 election.
Patty Murray called it “an astounding admission” and said the President and his team abused their power to kill good jobs and punish hard-working families because of their political views. Her statement and Kaptur’s both tied the filing to the same point: the cuts were not described as neutral program decisions.
DOE grant terminations
Several courts have already ruled against the terminations. The filing now makes the Department’s stated basis part of the public record, which gives project recipients a clearer record to use in the ongoing cases.
The immediate unresolved issue is which specific energy projects were terminated within each of the 16 states listed in the October notice tranche. For recipients, the practical question is no longer whether politics was part of the decision; the record now says it was the only consideration.
