The Energy Department Is Failing to Meet Oversight Requirements, Congress’ Watchdog Says

The Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations has lost the staff required to properly oversee about $27 billion in funded energy projects, according to a new assessment from the Government Accountability Office

The failure to meet those congressionally-mandated requirements stems from the Trump administration's deep cuts to the agency's federal workforce.

The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations lost more than 80% of its staff in 2025, including every person hired to independently assess and monitor the costs of big, government-funded projects.

"Given the large decrease in staff resources, contract support, and proposed budget, OCED does not have the capacity to be an effective entity, and DOE does not have a plan to ensure it meets statutory requirements for project management and oversight without an effective OCED," GAO officials wrote in their report.

GAO's investigation is a rare window into the impacts of the sweeping cuts and overhauls the Trump administration has initiated across every part of the federal government.

As an arm of Congress, GAO is the only group that has the authority to independently investigate the Trump administration and audit how the administration is spending taxpayer dollars and following the instructions of Congress. The agency has repeatedly issued reports warning that the Trump administration's overhaul of the executive branch has made the federal government increasingly ill-prepared for disasters, has led to the loss of skilled talent and has breached direct instructions from Congress.

DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The GAO's report lists a litany of ongoing concerns, including Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright's campaign to cancel renewable energy projects awarded during the Biden administration.

Over the course of the last year, the agency has canceled about 35 of the projects under OCED, or about a third of the total funding. However, the GAO found that the agency still has not decommitted funding for any of those projects. It is an open question what happens to the money if it is eventually returned to the agency's coffers.

"This report confirms what we've known all along: the Trump administration is weaponizing the government to hamstring the clean energy sector, without reason or legal authority. And working families are paying the price," Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich told NOTUS in a statement.

Congress also required that DOE hire people who could independently assess whether the costs of an expensive energy project were reasonable before that project began construction. The agency no longer employs any of those independent staffers - and while DOE said a different office could conduct the assessments, that secondary office lost about 60% of its staff in 2025, too, according to the GAO.

Almost all project managers for existing and terminated projects have left the agency; 42 out of 45 groups that won funding from DOE told the GAO auditors that they lost their original project manager. About three-quarters of those groups have received new managers, but those new officials each are handling more projects and have less time for day-to-day oversight, according to the report.

The watchdog's assessment concludes with a warning for the agency.

"Private companies, which are often funding more than 50 percent of these projects, may reconsider future partnerships with the federal government," the GAO wrote.

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