WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has confirmed in court documents that it ended $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state - in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation's energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.

Democrats and environmental groups seized on the court filing Friday, saying the administration had weaponized the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families because of their political views.

This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: it terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election, said Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. Both are high-ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees, respectively.

Weaponizing the federal government like this is outright un-American, and it is hardworking families already struggling with sky-high costs who are suffering the consequences of this corrupt abuse of power, Kaptur and Murray said.

They called on congressional Republicans to join them in holding the Trump administration accountable for the President's failure to look out for all Americans.

The Energy Department announced last October that 321 funding awards across 223 projects were terminated, saying that after review, they did not adequately advance the nation's energy needs or were not economically viable.

The cuts, part of broader attacks from President Donald Trump on climate programs and clean energy funding, slashed federal support for projects to build battery plants, develop hydrogen technology, upgrade the electric grid and capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Russell Vought, the White House budget director, highlighted the cutbacks in a social media post, saying money to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled.