Trump Administration Admits Retaliatory Grant Cancellations

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Washington, D.C. — Today, the New York Times uncovered recent court filings where the Trump administration admitted to targeting states that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and are represented by Democrats when slashing billions of dollars of clean energy investments.

In October 2025, the Trump administration cancelled nearly $7.6 billion of federal investments in clean energy projects across the targeted states. The projects that were cancelled would have provided economic relief from high energy bills, created jobs, and lowered emissions across the country.

Despite the unprecedented (and illegal) attacks from the administration, clean energy is still outperforming fossil fuels on cost performance. Lazard’s 2026 Levelized Cost of Energy report shows that despite losing out on federal investments, onshore wind and utility-scale solar are more affordable than fossil fuels.

In response, Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender issued the following statement: 

“The Trump administration is brazenly admitting to a vindictive approach to cancelling much-needed energy infrastructure that ignores the job losses, air pollution, and increasing bills that people are experiencing everywhere.

“Where are these billions of American taxpayer dollars going instead of building the energy projects we desperately need? To line the pockets of a small handful of fossil fuel company CEOs. Just this week, Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin boasted that he is on a mission to complete Big Coal’s ‘wish list’. Coal has been getting more expensive while clean energy costs continue to go down. The Trump administration has already wasted nearly $3 billion in taxpayer dollars to cut dirty backroom deals that tip the scales in favor of dirty, expensive fossil fuels. The Sierra Club will continue to push back against this retaliatory agenda and fight for a clean, healthy, affordable future.”