Exclusive: Even ‘retained’ DOE projects are still waiting for funding

A year after the Trump administration canceled nearly $8 billion in Department of Energy clean energy grants, most of that money is still tied up. Of the 321 awards canceled last October, 18 have been reinstated through court cases and more than a dozen are tied up in pending lawsuits. But a new report from the DOE Alumni Network and Lawyers for Good Government finds that 61 percent of terminated awards, over 200 projects, are still stuck disputing their cancellation with the agency.

Even projects the DOE officially "retained" aren't getting paid. The report found 69 percent of retained projects have gotten little or no new funding, and 44 percent have gotten none at all. Overall, the agency has released just 1 percent of the money promised to these projects since April. Part of the holdup is a slow, multi-round review process: one awardee went through seven rounds of edits to its project paperwork, including removing references to diversity programs and renewable energy. Federal clean hydrogen hub projects show the same pattern, with only $2 million disbursed of $112 million planned.

Beyond the terminated projects, another 1,731 awards worth $3.9 billion have been "ghosted," meaning they haven't been formally canceled but also haven't received funding. About a third of these involve efforts to lower energy costs, including home electrification funding for Tribal communities and $1 billion meant to help states update building energy codes. These delays touch both Democratic and Republican districts, including projects for battery storage and electrical workforce training that remain stalled despite backing from Republican lawmakers.