A federal judge on Thursday overturned the U.S. Energy Department’s cancellation of $82.1 million in clean energy grants, siding with plaintiffs in a case that now has a final, appealable judgment. Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling restores, at least on paper, funding tied to 11 projects in five states.
The decision matters now because it lands months after the grants were first pulled and after the dispute widened into a test of how the department handled a much larger wave of terminations. The 11 projects were spread across New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota and Colorado, and all were issued by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Among the most affected was the New Buildings Institute, which lost four Oregon grants. The plaintiffs said the cancellations were not random but aimed at states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, a charge the department rejected this week when Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing, “We did not involve politics in the decision-making of our review process. Hands down,” and added, “I keep hearing that charge. It’s bulls–t, we’re going to say it a million times,”.
That clash gives the case its larger weight. In April, the plaintiffs filed their complaint after a post on X from Russell Vought said, “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY. The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.” DOE’s full October terminations later topped more than $7.5 billion in financial awards to clean energy projects in states that voted for Harris.
Mehta’s ruling does not say whether the department will move immediately to restore the money or whether it will appeal, and that is now the practical question hanging over the affected projects. The grants came from an office that was consolidated last year into DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, but the judge’s order leaves the government with a narrower choice: revive the cancelled awards or defend the terminations in a higher court.
