A federal judge on Thursday vacated the Us Energy Department’s cancellation of $82.1 million in clean energy grants, clearing the way for the money to be restored to 11 projects in five states. Judge Amit Mehta wrote that “the Court enters judgment in favor of Plaintiffs” and said his ruling was “a final, appealable judgment.”
The decision directly affects seven awardees with projects in New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota and Colorado, including the New Buildings Institute, which lost four Oregon grants, and Proton Energy Systems Inc., which was targeted for a $6.1 million award. The grants were all issued by the department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a unit that was later folded into the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.
Gabe Amo put the issue back in front of Energy Secretary Chris Wright a day earlier, asking during a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing when the department would restore funding to projects that, in his words, had been wrongfully terminated. Wright rejected the idea that politics played any role, telling lawmakers, “We did not involve politics in the decision-making of our review process. Hands down.” He added, “I keep hearing that charge. It’s bulls–t, we’re going to say it a million times.”
That denial did not end the argument surrounding the October 2025 terminations. The plaintiffs, a coalition led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, said the cancellations followed the same pattern seen in a separate case settled in January, when the department was ordered to reverse $27.6 billion in grant cuts. They also said the October terminations swept up more than $7.5 billion in awards to clean energy projects in states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, and that the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment did not allow that conduct.
The record in this case also includes a $49.8 million award to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a post on X from then-White House official Russell Vought announcing that nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam” funding was being cancelled. Taken together, the ruling leaves the department with little room to stall: the cancellations have been vacated, the judgment is final, and the only question left is how quickly the Us Energy Department puts the $82.1 million back in place.
