Judge Says Trump Admin Illegally Cut Billions in Grants From Blue States’ Climate Projects

President Donald Trump’s administration acted illegally in blocking $7.6 billion for climate projects in democratically run states, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The grants were canceled after a review found the projects were not financially feasible and did not advance the country’s energy needs. The judge said this action violated the Constitution’s equal protection requirements and targeted states that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The grants were blocked in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington State.

“All the awardees (but one) were based in states whose majority of citizens casting votes did not support President Trump in the 2024 election,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling, ordering the funds to be restored.

The funds were going to President Joe Biden-era projects, like battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, electric vehicle charging stations, and efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

In May 2025, Department of Energy Secretary Christopher Wright said his agency was conducting a case-by-case review of grants awarded under Biden’s administration.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought announced the cuts in a post on X in October 2025, saying that billions in “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”

Trump posted on Truth Social the day after Vought’s X post that he had met with him to decide which Democrat agencies, “most of which are a political SCAM,” need to be cut during the government shutdown last fall.

The judge said in his Monday ruling that the Trump administration did not give an explanation for how blocking the funds advanced government interest.

“Defendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily—if not exclusively—based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024,” the judge added in the 17-page decision.

The Department of Energy said it disagrees with the judge’s ruling on the $7.6 billion in Biden-era grants.

“We stand by our review process, which evaluated these awards individually and determined they did not meet the standards necessary to justify the continued spending of taxpayer dollars,” Energy Department spokesman Ben Dietderich said. “The American people deserve a government that is accountable and responsible in managing taxpayer funds.”

This latest ruling now becomes the second legal setback for Trump’s efforts to roll back Biden’s clean energy policies.

Also on Monday, a different federal judge ruled that an offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume work, reversing the Trump administration’s December 2025 pause of all large-scale offshore wind projects.

During his second term, the president has stressed the importance of American energy dominance. This includes expanding both onshore and offshore oil and gas development through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last year.

The Department of Interior outlined several other areas where Trump’s energy agenda will be implemented, like with coal plants, water infrastructure and hydropower, timber harvesting, and domestic mineral development. The agency said the act will help bring “an end to years of subsidies for economically unviable energy development.”

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a historic piece of legislation that will restore energy independence … by reversing disastrous Biden-era policies that constricted domestic energy production,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a July 2025 statement.