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The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it has canceled more than 220 clean energy projects initiated under the Biden administration, stating that the decision will save taxpayers over $7.5 billion.
The department said 321 financial awards tied to the projects were terminated following a review that found they did not advance U.S. energy needs, lacked economic viability and provided no meaningful return for taxpayers.
The cancellations affected awards across several DOE offices, including Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Grid Deployment, Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, ARPA-E, and Fossil Energy.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said many of the projects were rushed through at the end of the Biden administration.
“On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Wright said.
The department stated that approximately 26 percent of the canceled awards, valued at more than $3.1 billion, were issued between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Officials did not release details on the individual projects.
White House budget chief Russ Vought praised the move, posting on X that “nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being canceled.”
He also listed states where projects were terminated, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Except for New Hampshire and Vermont, all of those states are led by Democratic governors and voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
In May, Wright issued new guidelines tightening standards for federal energy spending. Each award is now subject to case-by-case review for waste, national security risks and economic justification. DOE officials said the terminated projects failed to meet those benchmarks.
Recipients have 30 days to appeal the cancellations, and the department confirmed that some have already begun that process.