With Government Shutdown, Energy Department Targets Select Grants and Companies for Cancelation – GreenBuildingAdvisor

By Justin R. Wolf | October 7, 2025

On October 2, with the latest government shutdown barely a day old, the Department of Energy announced that it was cancelling “321 financial awards supporting 223 projects” and saving taxpayers an estimated $7.56 billion. The awards were issued through various DOE offices including the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Grid Deployment Office (GDO), Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and Fossil Energy (FE). The companies and partnerships impacted by these stoppages represent a vast range of clean energy and manufacturing sectors, from green hydrogen and renewable energy to low-carbon concrete manufacturing and building materials.

DOE Secretary Chris Wright is quoted in the department’s press release saying “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellation’s [sic] deliver on that commitment. Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people.” For their part, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee released a list of projects impacted by the latest cuts, along with each of the 138 Congressional districts (108 of them represented by Democrats) in which those companies primarily operate. “The termination of these critical energy projects will increase energy prices, eliminate jobs, and make the energy grid less reliable,” the committee’s statement reads.

On the topic of what constitutes “affordable, reliable, and secure” energy, it is worth examining this larger action based on the merits of the grantees themselves and what these awards were directly funding. This article highlights three companies operating in different sectors and how these cuts are likely to impact their work.

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