Trump administration defunds Northwest hydrogen hub, Spokane grid project, WSU research in cuts targeting ‘the Left’s climate agenda’

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Energy is canceling more than $7.5 billion in grants nationwide, including funding for research at Washington State University, an electrical grid project in Spokane and a billion-dollar effort to turn the Northwest into a hub of the hydrogen energy industry.

The move was first announced Wednesday by Russ Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, who called the grants “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda” in a post on X. The cuts almost exclusively target states run by Democrats, although the $1 billion federal investment in the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub announced in October 2023 was set to create jobs in Montana along with Washington and Oregon.

The cuts came at the end of the first day of a government shutdown, as Democrats demand that Republicans preserve health care funding in exchange for their votes to continue federal spending. President Donald Trump has openly threatened to use the shutdown to target Democratic priorities and states that voted against him in 2024, calling the funding lapse an “unprecedented opportunity” to cut funding to “Democrat Agencies,” in a social media post on Thursday.

“We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

In a more formal announcement, the Energy Department on Wednesday night said the cancellations came after “a thorough, individualized review” concluded that the projects “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.”

In a statement, Secretary Chris Wright said roughly a quarter of the awards were “rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard.”

A list of the terminated grants, obtained by The Spokesman-Review, shows 11 awards for projects in Washington state. By far the largest was bound for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, a coalition of public and private groups in Washington, Oregon and Montana that was organized by the Washington State Department of Commerce.

Gov. Bob Ferguson released a statement Thursday afternoon condemning the cuts.

“It is outrageous that this administration is using a government shutdown to punish blue states like Washington,” Ferguson said. “These projects will lower costs, create jobs, and reduce air pollution. We’re working with the Attorney General’s Office to fight this illegal action.”

In response to the Energy Department’s decision, the association said in a statement, “Regardless of the political fighting in Washington, D.C., hydrogen remains a viable product for energy dominance and represents a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars that generates millions of jobs.”

“While we are disappointed in the Department of Energy’s decision to cut funding for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub, there is still immense opportunity for our region to finish what we started – establishing a national benchmark for hydrogen production that brings economic opportunities to communities across the region,” the association said. “With or without federal support, this industry will continue to drive the innovation and infrastructure needed to fortify America’s energy economy.”

The cancellation drew immediate criticism from Democrats, including Rep. Kim Schrier, who said in a statement she was “outraged” by the “senseless decision” and pledged to fight to reverse it. Award recipients have 30 days to appeal the cancellations, the Energy Department said in its announcement on Wednesday.

“Under the cover of a shutdown, this Administration launched a politically motivated attack on a project that both parties have championed, which will bring billions of dollars in investments to strengthen our economy, create thousands of good-paying jobs, and bolster our domestic clean energy production,” said Schrier, whose district stretches from Wenatchee to the eastern suburbs of Seattle and Tacoma. “At a time when rising prices are already squeezing families across the country, this action hits Washington consumers hard by increasing utility bills and kneecapping U.S. competitiveness in the global energy race.”

The hydrogen project has drawn support from Republicans in recent months, including Rep. Dan Newhouse, whose central Washington district voted for Trump by a wider margin than any other part of the state. In a column published in April, Newhouse wrote that the Pacific Northwest had “an unparalleled opportunity to lead the nation in developing a hydrogen economy.”

“Hydrogen is a critical component of our energy future,” the GOP congressman wrote. “Clean hydrogen made from hydropower provides carbon-free energy that can be used to power a range of hard-to-abate sectors. Hydrogen presents a unique opportunity for Washington as it can fuel heavy transportation sectors like trucking and aviation, support our seaports and cargo handling capabilities, and provide energy for generators, data centers, and refineries.”

Republicans in the Washington State Legislature – led by Minority Leader John Braun, who is running for southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District – sent a letter to Wright in April, asking the Energy Department chief not to cancel funding for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. They noted that the planned $1 billion federal investment would unlock an additional $5 billion in private and non-federal funding, “for a generational $6 billion investment in local infrastructure and our region’s nascent hydrogen industry.”

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but pure hydrogen must be produced by separating hydrogen atoms from other molecules, most often by using steam to split them from methane or electricity to split them from water. That hydrogen fuel can then be used to power trucks, ships, airplanes and other parts of the nation’s transportation infrastructure that are otherwise hard to transition away from fossil fuels.

The Northwest hub plans to produce hydrogen from water via electrolysis, powered by hydroelectric dams. Other regional hydrogen hubs that intend to use natural gas, including in Appalachia and the Gulf Coast, were not defunded in the move on Wednesday. Congress approved the $7 billion hydrogen hub program through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed with bipartisan support in 2021.

The other grants canceled by the Energy Department include four separate awards to Washington State University – totaling more than $9.8 million – for research on solar energy technology, manufacturing and vehicles, according to documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

Another $5.3 million was canceled after being awarded to a group led by Seattle-based Edo Energy that includes Avista Utilities and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to upgrade up to 125 commercial and residential buildings in Spokane to make them more energy efficient and create a more resilient power grid.