The Department of Energy canceled a $630.6 million Biden-era grant that would have funded green energy projects in California, and which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) praised as “critical” to the state, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
According to internal agency documents, Trump Energy Department officials determined that the grant would have been used primarily to support new solar and wind energy projects. State leaders said they planned to use the funding to upgrade 100 miles of transmission lines to enable more green energy to come online as part of the California Energy Commission’s so-called CHARGE 2T program.
“This approach is concerning given the challenges already faced by these renewable projects due to the removal of [subsidies], and internal Department of Energy studies that indicate their limited contribution during periods of system strain,” the Trump Energy Department officials wrote.
The Biden administration announced the grant in August 2024. Newsom, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), and Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) immediately praised the funding.
“This funding is critical to our efforts to build a power grid that ensures all Californians have access to cleaner, cheaper, more reliable electricity,” Newsom said at the time.
Pelosi added that the grant would pave the way for “America’s clean energy future,” and Padilla said it would “deliver clean electricity while creating new green jobs.”
“If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day Trump and Republicans are targeting blue states—wrecking our power grid, cutting jobs, dirtying our air, and clogging our lungs,” Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesman for Newsom, told the Free Beacon in a statement.
The grant, meanwhile, is one of hundreds of grants worth a total of $7.5 billion that the Department of Energy said it is canceling in an announcement on Wednesday. The agency has not made the list of grants public.
It is part of President Donald Trump’s broad push to roll back green energy funding and forward his “energy dominance” agenda. Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have argued in favor of more natural gas, coal, and nuclear power plants, which they say are far more reliable than weather-dependent wind and solar projects.
“President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment,” Wright said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Jason Isaac, the CEO of the right-leaning American Energy Institute, lauded Wright’s actions and said they would help restore grid reliability.
“These projects were about political virtue signaling, not meeting real energy demand,” he told the Free Beacon. “It is time to prioritize dispatchable, proven energy sources over green pipe dreams.”
The actions also come amid the ongoing government shutdown—caused by congressional Democrats—which White House budget director Russ Vought sees as an opportunity to cut government spending. Vought alluded to the Department of Energy’s actions earlier on Wednesday, stating in an X post that “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”
In addition to the CHARGE 2T grant, the Department of Energy also canceled a $1.2 billion grant the Biden administration earmarked to a green hydrogen power project in California. According to the internal documents reviewed by the Free Beacon, Trump officials worried that the project did not advance technology solutions that “properly address current commercial or business shortcomings.”
Newsom blasted that decision: “In Trump’s America, energy policy is set by the highest bidder, economics and common sense be damned. Clean hydrogen deserves to be part of California’s energy future,” he said.
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