Reports and Publications
New Report
INNOVATION INTERRUPTED: The Lasting Impact of Grant Terminations and Freezes at the U.S. Department of Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Alumni Network issued its first official report, “INNOVATION INTERRUPTED: The Lasting Impact of Grant Terminations and Freezes at the U.S. Department of Energy.” The report details the events leading up to DOE’s announcement of the termination of 321 energy projects worth $7.5 billion in federal funding on October 1, 2025.
The report analyzes the six months following the first announcement and the larger context of DOE “ghosting” thousands of its awardees and the agency’s functional pause on financial assistance across a large portion of its energy RDD&D programs.
Report Executive Summary
The Scale of Terminations and Funding at Risk is Massive: DOE has announced the termination of 356 awards since January 2025, totaling $12.5 billion in federal funding. It has also threatened to terminate an additional 303 awards worth $12.2 billion. This action is part of a larger pattern of disruption that includes freezing projects at stage gates, not finalizing conditional awards, and reducing new solicitations, which puts Congressional goals for our energy sector, infrastructure, and domestic manufacturing at risk.
DOE Admits Terminations Were Made on a Partisan Basis; Actions Ruled Unconstitutional: The 321 awards announced terminated on October 2, 2025, were primarily chosen based on their business registration addresses being in "blue states". In the lawsuit St. Paul v. Wright, the DOE admitted that the political identity of the grantee’s state played a "primary role" in the termination decisions. The judge subsequently ruled these terminations were unlawful and violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The St. Paul awardees who sued have been reinstated by DOE since.
Widespread Award "Ghosting" and Administrative Freeze Continues: DOE is "ghosting" the vast majority of terminated awardees and hundreds of other awards on the leaked cancellation list, along with a large number of awardees who have never appeared on any list. This means the agency is not moving forward to resolve disputes, finalize conditional awards, or respond to continuation applications, leaving projects in administrative limbo and functionally freezing promised funds.
Long Term Repercussions Exist for U.S. Energy Innovation: DOE’s actions profoundly undermine the reliability of federal grants as a mechanism for achieving national energy goals. This disruption has created deep uncertainty among private sector partners, with some awardees stating they will no longer pursue future DOE funding, posing a long-term risk to domestic energy innovation and deployment.
