Innovation on Hold: One Year Since DOE’s Mass Award Terminations

One year ago, on October 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took an unprecedented step by terminating 321 awards worth over $8 billion in clean energy grant funding. DOE has since conceded that these awards were canceled "based solely" on the award recipient state’s political identity (targeting "blue states"). When combined with earlier rounds of cuts in clean energy demonstration projects, over $12.5 billion in Congressionally appropriated energy research, development, and deployment funding was terminated last year.

In April, the DOE Alumni Network released a report, Innovation Interrupted, that tracked a larger pattern of disruptions at play. Today, the DOE Alumni Network, in partnership with Lawyers for Good Government, released a new report tracking the lasting impacts to the Department’s grant mechanisms and awards management processes: Innovation on Hold: One Year Since DOE’s Mass Award Termination

This latest analysis of federal spending data, court filings, and direct awardee feedback shows that despite DOE’s statements that project portfolio reviews are complete, the majority of affected projects—whether terminated, "retained," or "ghosted"—remain functionally frozen.

Read the Report

Key Takeaways from the Report

1. Terminated Awards: 61% Stuck in Administrative Limbo

  • Disputes ignored: Hundreds of awardees filed informal disputes under federal regulations following the October 1 cancellations. One year later, it’s estimated that 206 awardees (61%) remain stuck in DOE’s dispute process without a clear path to resolution.

  • Use of a state’s political identity: Since the last report on the topic, DOE has admitted in federal court that the October 1 terminations were made "based solely" on the recipient's political state ("blue states") rather than any technical, financial, or programmatic merits.

2. Retained Awards: Over 1,000 Retained Projects Still Face Freezes and Bottlenecks

  • Funding remains frozen: In April 2026, DOE announced it would "retain" 1,951 projects. Nearly six months later, 69% of active projects have received negligible new funds. Overall, DOE has disbursed just 1% of the total committed funds for retained projects since the April announcement.

  • Centralized bottlenecks & stripping of terms: Due to the significant labor associated with simultaneous renegotiation of a large number of awards, understaffing and, in some instances, political direction over routine contracting decisions, administrative throughput has faced significant obstacles and progress remains on hold. Furthermore, some awardees report being required to modify their projects to remove references to energy efficiency, renewable energy, community benefits, and grid resilience.

3. Ghosted & Abandoned FOAs: $3.9 Billion in Additional Funding in Limbo 

  • 34 Ghosted Funding Opportunities: The report highlights 1,731 additional projects valued at $3.9 billion for whom DOE has ceased communication and funding outlays.

Public Dataset

Along with the report, the DOE Alumni Network now has a comprehensive public dataset that highlights the thousands of awards that were terminated and retained over the past year. The dataset is adapted from the government’s federal spending database, USAspending.gov.