{"id":34158,"date":"2026-08-09T07:45:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34158"},"modified":"2026-08-09T07:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:45:32","slug":"trump-energy-chief-lied-to-congress-about-canceled-clean-energy-funds-lawmakers-allege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34158","title":{"rendered":"Trump energy chief lied to Congress about canceled clean energy funds, lawmakers allege"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>Democratic lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to consider criminal charges against U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, alleging that the nation\u2019s top energy official made false statements to Congress about the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2026-07-28\/trump-administration-targeted-california-other-blue-states-for-clean-energy-cuts\"><u>termination of $7.6 billion in grants for clean energy projects in blue states<\/u><\/a>, The Times has learned.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jos\u00e9) and Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) say Wright testified falsely during a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a6LTzL5bwRE&amp;t=4s\" target=\"_blank\">June 10 hearing<\/a> before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology when he stated that the Energy Department did not <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2025-10-01\/trump-administration-says-it-will-cut-8-billion-for-climate-projects-in-blue-states\">target states for <u>funding cuts<\/u><\/a> based on their politics. All 16 states that lost money, including California, did not vote for President Trump in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p>Then in <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cand.450653\/gov.uscourts.cand.450653.211.6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><u>court documents<\/u><\/a> recently unveiled as part of a California-based lawsuit, attorneys with the Energy Department accepted that the grant cuts announced in October were \u201cbased solely on the political identity of the grant recipient\u2019s state, i.e., whether the recipient\u2019s location and\/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecretary Wright lied to the Committee with his statements, which sought to prevent us from learning the truth: that the October award terminations were an act of political retaliation, \u2018based solely\u2019 on whether recipients were located in Blue States,\u201d wrote Lofgren, the ranking minority member on the House Science Committee, and Amo, the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Environment, in a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats-science.house.gov\/download\/sst-rm-lofgren-and-amo_-letter-to-acting-ag-blanche_-doe-secretary-chris-wright_-8426\" target=\"_blank\">joint letter to acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche dated Tuesday<\/a>, obtained by The Times. \u201cHe lied to Congress.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In doing so, they say, Wright <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/1001\" target=\"_blank\">violated federal law<\/a>, which bars individuals from making materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or representations to Congress. They are requesting the Justice Department review the matter \u201cexpeditiously and with the utmost seriousness,\u201d and bring criminal charges against Wright if warranted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReferring a Cabinet Secretary for potential prosecution is not a step we take lightly,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cIt is a weighty thing to assert that a Cabinet Secretary lied to Congress. We do not treat that assertion as a trivial matter, and we do not use those words carelessly. But the facts of the situation are clear and undeniable.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A representative for the House Science Committee Republicans did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. <\/p>\n<p>The Energy Department denied the allegations. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Secretary\u2019s statements in his testimony are correct,\u201d agency officials said in a statement. \u201cNone of the termination decisions were based on political considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The matter stems from Wright\u2019s comments during the June hearing, when committee members asked about the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2025-10-01\/trump-administration-says-it-will-cut-8-billion-for-climate-projects-in-blue-states\">termination of nearly 300 grants in October<\/a>. The grants were for clean energy projects such as new battery plants, electrical grid upgrades, carbon capture initiatives and a $<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2024-07-25\/what-californias-hydrogen-hub-means-for-our-energy-future\">1.2-billion award<\/a> for California\u2019s nascent hydrogen hub known as ARCHES. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo decisions were made on politics,\u201d Wright said during the hearing. \u201cI keep hearing that charge. It\u2019s bull\u2014. We\u2019re going to say it a million times. It\u2019s not true.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Later, Amo asked: \u201cDo you believe the federal grant decisions should be based in any way on how a state\u2019s voters cast their ballots in a presidential election?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>To which Wright replied: \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t, and they weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Energy Department officials maintain that Wright\u2019s statements were factual. The 284 projects selected for termination were from a larger pool of more than 2,300 projects that the department had selected for review earlier in the year. Those projects were located in both red and blue states and not based on political considerations, they said. The Office of Management and Budget then identified the projects announced for termination in October, they said. All but one of the projects were in states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris. <\/p>\n<p>Lofgren and Amo noted in their letter that the Energy secretary spoke to the Science Committee more than three weeks after department attorneys stipulated to the opposite in court documents signed May 15, 2026. The documents were filed with the court July 15.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to acknowledging that the grant terminations were based on the politics of the grant recipient\u2019s state, the Energy Department also affirmed in the court documents that \u201cneither the inclusions of the ARCHES grant nor any other grants in the October notice tranche was based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was brought by a group of faculty members and researchers at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, who were among those to lose research grants. <\/p>\n<p>The Energy Department agreed to formal stipulations in exchange for the plaintiffs forgoing the discovery process, which likely would have meant officials would be deposed. Energy Department officials told The Times the admissions were solely to expedite the litigation.<\/p>\n<p>News of the funding cuts first broke in an October <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/russvought\/status\/1973450301236715838\" target=\"_blank\"><u>post on X<\/u><\/a> from Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left\u2019s climate agenda is being canceled,\u201d Vought wrote. \u201cThe projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Wright denied political motivations in the weeks and months that followed, telling CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins in October that the decisions were \u201c<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qQl4jM_YkDo\" target=\"_blank\">all based on facts<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He reiterated similar sentiments in congressional hearings before the House Committee on Appropriations, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Committee on Appropriations. <\/p>\n<p>Reached by phone, Amo said the funding cuts will have a considerable effect on the nation\u2019s clean energy future.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be technology agnostic and invest in the things that one, keep Americans safe from the threats of climate change, and two, spur our clean energy economy \u2014 one that we know is driven by plentiful, cheap and environmentally sound technology.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Lofgren conceded it\u2019s unlikely that Blanche, a Trump appointee, will take up the case. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean that we shouldn\u2019t proceed,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Officials with the Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to consider criminal charges against U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, alleging that the nation\u2019s top energy official made false statements to Congress about the termination of $7.6 billion in grants for clean energy projects in blue states, The Times has learned. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jos\u00e9) and Rep&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/69c07b5\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3560x1869+0+254\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F49%2Fa9%2F78ffa730465ea8b95a4251aa7e43%2Fgettyimages-2272402365.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}