Trump is blocking billions of dollars of grants that would fix the grid
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- DOE Alumni Network reported in April that the Department of Energy has terminated 356 awards totaling $12.5 billion since January 2025 and threatened to terminate 303 more worth $12.2 billion, with many additional grantees stuck in administrative limbo.
- Consultant Emlyn Bottomley found that of roughly $11.4 billion in DOE funds obligated to grid infrastructure and resilience, $9.1 billion remains "at risk" through stalled timelines or shortened completion windows, compared with $400 million canceled outright.
- Alliant Energy "voluntarily withdrew" from its $50 million Smart Power Automation in Rural Communities grant in April after the DOE terminated the award in October 2024, abandoning a project that could have cut outages in disadvantaged Wisconsin communities by up to 50%.
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District has not received any DOE reimbursement since October 2025 for its $50 million smart-meter project after the grant was canceled, despite already spending close to $100 million and deploying 200,000 meters.
- California's largest cancelled project — a $630.6 million DOE grant awarded in 2024 to upgrade more than 100 miles of high-voltage transmission lines — was terminated in October with zero funds disbursed, according to federal records.
- Portland General Electric learned the DOE may reinstate a previously terminated $50 million grid-edge computing grant, while separately negotiating with DOE over a $250 million high-voltage transmission line grant with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
- A former DOE official described a 15-month pattern of "stalling, stonewalling, and ghosting" grantees, saying projects "can't proceed to the next stages and get their next tranche of funding" even when not formally canceled.
- The October 2025 termination wave of 321 awards supporting 223 projects targeted only states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, following OMB director Russ Vought's announcement of "nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding" cuts.
Why it matters: Grid projects that won bipartisan backing under the 2021 infrastructure law are now paralyzed: $9.1 billion sits in limbo, a $630.6 million California transmission upgrade was killed without a dollar spent, and utilities like Alliant Energy have walked away from matching investments — meaning ratepayers and tribal communities lose reliability upgrades that Congress already funded.
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