Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Energy Grant Cuts Unlawful

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to terminate millions of dollars in clean‑energy grants last fall was "unlawful." Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the cancellation of seven Biden‑era grants, worth about $27.5 million, violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

The Energy Department in October canceled more than $7.5 billion in clean‑energy funding, largely in Democratic‑led states, as part of a broader effort to cut awards for projects such as hydrogen fuel hubs, electrical grid upgrades and efforts to reduce methane leaks. In November, a coalition of energy groups and the city of St.

Paul sued over seven of those terminated grants; the court’s ruling focused only on those seven. Judge Mehta wrote that the terminated grants "had one glaring commonality: All the awardees (but one) were based in states whose majority of citizens casting votes did not support President Trump in the 2024 election," and said the administration had "offered no plausible rational connection" between its policy priorities and the places where the cuts occurred.

The judge blocked the agency from terminating the seven grants in the case, which included funding for making buildings more energy‑efficient and reducing barriers for solar power, and did not address the hundreds of other grants the agency also terminated.

Key Topics

Politics, Amit P. Mehta, Trump Administration, Clean Energy Grants, St. Paul, Hydrogen Hubs