Cantwell & Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Restore Funding for PNW Hydrogen Hub, Other Energy Projects That Were Illegally Canceled & Politically Targeted

Cantwell & Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Restore Funding for PNW Hydrogen Hub, Other Energy Projects That Were Illegally Canceled & Politically Targeted

Letter follows Trump administration confession energy project grant cancellations were decided "based solely" on whether states voted for Trump; Trump DOE clawed back $1B from the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association Hub, costing $5B in additional private investment, 10,000 jobs, and an opportunity to lower energy costs for the entire nation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, joined her colleagues in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought demanding that the Trump administration restore funding for the 223 energy projects canceled in October 2025.

The Trump administration has since admitted to illegally canceling energy grants because those projects were in states that did not vote for President Trump in the 2024 election.

In WA, politicized grant cancellations hit energy projects across the state, totaling $1.14 billion in lost funding including:

• $1 billion lost for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association Hub (Bellingham, Richland, & Chehalis, WA)
• $68 million lost for PACCAR (Renton, Bellevue & Mount Vernon, WA)
• $46.6 million lost for Nippon Dynawave (Vancouver, WA)
• $10 million lost for CleanFiber (Chehalis, WA)
• $9.9 million lost for Washington State University
• $5.3 million lost for Spokane Edo
• $3 million lost for SILFAB Solar (Burlington, WA)

The letter was led by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Patty Murray (D-WA). In addition to Sen. Cantwell, they were joined by 37 other Democratic senators -- all from states with canceled grants and funding.

"Now that court documents have confirmed what we knew to be true, we write to demand that you restore previously awarded funding that the Trump administration has weaponized in an attempt to punish perceived political enemies," the senators wrote.

"Once an administration begins punishing Americans for how they vote, the threat extends far beyond these projects: no state, community, business, or worker can trust that the federal government will apply the law fairly," the senators continued. "This is not only an attack on jobs, affordable energy, and America's economic competitiveness. It is an attack on the rule of law and the basic democratic principle that the federal government serves the entire country-not merely those who support the President."

"At a time when energy prices are skyrocketing, the administration is hell-bent on political retribution instead of working to bring down costs for millions of Americans. The American people deserve to have a government that works for them-not one that is willing to push energy prices even higher and put the country's energy security at grave risk," the senators concluded. "For the good of our country, the rule of law, and the American people, we demand that you change course and restore the previously awarded funding."

The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association (PNWH2) is one of the projects targeted by the Trump Administration's short-sighted, partisan funding cuts. The PNWH2 supports clean energy efforts in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Its cancellation eliminates more than 10,000 jobs across the region, mainly in rural areas.

In October 2023, the DOE designated PNWH2 as one of seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) across the nation, focused on harnessing the Pacific Northwest's abundant and clean hydropower supplies to produce hydrogen through hydrolysis.

In July 2024, DOE announced that PNWH2 received Phase 1 award status and would receive an initial amount of up to $27.5 million to fund initial planning, permitting, and analysis activities to ensure that the overall Hub concept is technologically and financially viable, with input from relevant local stakeholders. The majority of this funding was never paid. Besides the $1 billion in federal cost-sharing, the Hub was expected to be matched by over $5 billion in local investments.

Sen. Cantwell worked to include the H2Hubs program and other key hydrogen investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) in July 2021 and pushed for its successful passage through the Senate. Together with the clean hydrogen incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), these investments represented a historical investment to help spur hydrogen to be an important piece of the decarbonizing puzzle needed to reach our climate goals.

Read the full text of today's letter HERE and below:

Secretary Wright and Director Vought:

Now that court documents have confirmed what we knew to be true, we write to demand that you restore previously awarded funding that the Trump Administration has weaponized in an attempt to punish perceived political enemies.

In October 2025, we wrote to you to express strong opposition to the Administration's callous decision to unlawfully terminate $8 billion in federal investments for 223 energy projects. You not only acted outside the bounds of the law, but canceled projects that would have provided jobs, onshored manufacturing, and lowered skyrocketing energy prices. Congress authorized those projects and appropriated funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriation bills. At the time of the termination of those projects, we expressed outrage that the terminations appeared politically motivated and confined to states that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 presidential election. The Administration has now admitted in federal court what it denied to Congress and the American people.

On July 24, 2026, citing court filings, The New York Times reported that the Trump Administration acknowledged that it terminated more than $7.5 billion of grants due to political motivations. In a two-step process, the Department of Energy (DOE) first recommended more than 600 grants for potential termination, including grants in states represented by both Republicans and Democrats. It appears the Office of Management and Budget then selected all the grants in "Blue States" for cancellation, which DOE executed. In court filings, DOE's lawyers conceded that the cancellations occurred "based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state." Specifically, as the court filings stated, "[w]ith one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing Senators ("Blue State" grants)." Similar grants in Red States, however, remained intact and were not the subject of termination. What's more, DOE lawyers conceded that the decision to terminate these blue state grants was not "based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor."

Once an Administration begins punishing Americans for how they vote, the threat extends far beyond these projects: no state, community, business, or worker can trust that the federal government will apply the law fairly. This is not only an attack on jobs, affordable energy, and America's economic competitiveness. It is an attack on the rule of law and the basic democratic principle that the federal government serves the entire country-not merely those who support the President.

At a time when energy prices are skyrocketing, the Administration is hell-bent on political retribution instead of working to bring down costs for millions of Americans. The American people deserve to have a government that works for them-not one that is willing to push energy prices even higher and put the country's energy security at grave risk.

For the good of our country, the rule of law, and the American people, we demand that you change course and restore the previously awarded funding.

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