The department said this week that it would be terminating funding for 223 projects worth about $7.56 billion. The planned cuts came after a DOE review determined the projects did not advance the nation’s energy needs, weren’t economically viable or were not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
A list of the projects obtained by POLITICO showed that the cuts will hit projects listed for blue states — although the impacts of some of the terminations will stretch into GOP states and districts.
DOE’s announcement landed after White House budget director Russ Vought promised the Trump administration would cancel nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam funding” in 16 states — all of which voted for Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
Wright said Thursday that those DOE cancellations were only a "partial list" in an ongoing process.
"More project announcements will come,” he said.
Democrats have responded to the cuts by accusing the administration of abusing its power amid the ongoing government shutdown. They also argued the department cuts would only worsen the pain from increasing electricity prices across the country — a claim Wright sought to counter on Thursday evening.
“Everything we're doing is to reverse the upward pressure on electricity prices and drive downward pressure,” he said. “You spend a billion dollars on hydrogen, you're going to spend a billion dollars of taxpayer money and then have more expensive energy bills afterward.”
DOE’s list of canceled projects included two hydrogen hubs in California and the Pacific Northwest that were to be funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law. The document did not weigh in on the five other hubs that were announced under the Biden administration — many of which are directly in GOP states.
Wright suggested those hubs could still be on the chopping block.
“The decisions on the others haven't been announced yet. That's just an evaluation that was made. They're announced as the evaluations get done,” he said, adding, “all of the hydrogen hubs are being evaluated through the same critical lens.”
Wright also said the terminations would be the final say on the projects, even as the White House has positioned the cuts as a consequence of the government shutdown.
“These decisions are made. Business decisions on whether it's a good use of the taxpayer money or not,” Wright said. “So no, these projects will not be restored."
He underscored that the terminations were a result of the department’s broader review of project awards that it has undertaken over the past several months.
“Timing of announcements, I don't control that always, but these decisions are made all in the Energy Department, all based on facts,” Wright said.