U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday that the Trump administration has not released federal clean energy grants terminated a year ago, after a federal judge concluded the cancellations were illegal. Speaking at a press conference in Hartford, Blumenthal said $53 million is owed to Connecticut recipients among the 12 of 284 terminated grants slated for eight recipients in the state.
Blumenthal, Lamont say Trump administration has not released terminated energy grants
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday that the Trump administration has not released federal clean energy grants terminated a year ago, after a federal judge concluded the cancellations were illegal. Speaking at a press conference in Hartford, Blumenthal said $53 million is owed to Connecticut recipients among the 12 of 284 terminated grants slated for eight recipients in the state.
In stipulated judgments issued in January and June on cases challenging the termination a year ago of $7.6 billion in clean energy grants, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta concluded the administration had acted illegally, according to the source. While applying only to a portion of the grants, the decisions addressed motivation for all the cancellations. Mehta sits on the U.S. District Court in Washington. The June decision was issued in a case brought by a coalition of plaintiffs led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and applied specifically to at least some of the Connecticut grantees.
Lawyers for the administration signed off on stipulations in two cases before Mehta and another in northern California in which they concede blue state recipients had been targeted, according to the source. "DOE accepts that the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient's state," the stipulation stated. The administration initially defended the terminations as a move to protect taxpayers against wasteful spending. The stipulation was first reported by the New York Times.
With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a connection to a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators, according to the stipulation. Blumenthal was one of 37 senators who signed a letter on July 30 urging Energy Secretary Chris Wright to release grants awarded by the Biden administration and blocked at the instigation of federal budget director Russell Vought, who said on social media that "the Left's climate agenda is being canceled." Blumenthal said Mehta's conclusions have been ignored, not challenged.
Among the Connecticut recipients, RTX, the corporate parent of Pratt & Whitney, was the recipient of four grants totaling more than $14 million to help develop advanced combustion turbines, as well as composite tanks for the storage of liquid hydrogen, according to the source. Linde PLC, the German gas and engineering company, had been awarded $9.5 million to develop a hydrogen refueling station for heavy-duty trucks, with the work to take place at the company's facilities in Danbury, Oklahoma and Texas, according to project documents. The University of Connecticut was to receive $2.25 million, and the $10 million grant to the Mott Corporation, based in Farmington, was for the development of titanium parts used in fuel cells; UConn and Wallingford company Nel Hydrogen were also involved, according to a DOE document. Other grant recipients in Connecticut listed in the source are Karpman Consulting, Proton Energy Systems, FuelCell Energy and Calcify.
The Department of Energy did not answer specific questions about the status of the 12 Connecticut grants. The source does not state whether the recipients had received partial payments before the cutoff ordered in October, which the source describes as nine months after Trump returned to the White House and put Vought in charge of the Office of Management and Budget. The source describes the complaint voiced Friday as an update on a standoff that persists despite the two court decisions and lobbying by senators.
- The source does not state the current status of the 12 Connecticut grants, or whether any of the funds have been released.
- The source does not state whether the Connecticut recipients had received partial payments before the cutoff ordered in October.
- The source does not give a calendar date for the press conference described as Friday, nor calendar years for the January and June judgments or the July 30 letter.
- The source does not state whether the administration has appealed Mehta's rulings or otherwise responded to the July 30 letter from 37 senators.
- The source does not identify the one terminated grant among the 284 that did not have a connection to a state won by Kamala Harris in 2024.
- The source does not state grant amounts for the Connecticut recipients other than RTX, Linde PLC, the University of Connecticut and the Mott Corporation.
- The source does not state whether the Connecticut grant recipients or Energy Secretary Chris Wright responded to the complaints made at the press conference.
Read the original at CT Mirror