Happy Friday, and welcome back to Canary Media Weekly! The Trump administration suffered four major court losses on the energy front this week. I’ve got the details on all of them below, starting with a ruling that restores some funding for blue-state climate projects — and that could pave the way for billions more dollars to follow.
Back in October, the Trump administration terminated a massive $7.6 billion in federal funding for climate and clean energy projects. There was a clear pattern to the clawback: Nearly every grant would’ve benefitted a state that voted for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
And the White House wasn’t exactly hiding its politically driven motivations. In a post on X announcing the rollback, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, referred to the revoked grants as “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.”
St. Paul, Minnesota, was among the cities, states, and organizations that lost funding — $560,844 for expanding EV charging, to be exact. So the city partnered with a handful of environmental groups to fight back in a lawsuit that resulted in a big admission from the Trump administration. In a December filing, Justice Department lawyers said they would not contest the assertion that a state’s votes for Democrats influenced the termination decisions.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta called out that assertion in his ruling on Monday, writing that “defendants freely admit that they made grant-termination decisions primarily — if not exclusively — based on whether the awardee resided in a state whose citizens voted for President Trump in 2024.”
While Mehta ordered the Trump administration to release about $28 million to St. Paul and its fellow plaintiffs, billions of dollars’ worth of other grants remain frozen. But one former U.S. Energy Department official told Latitude Media the win lays a clear path for other awardees to sue: “If the administration doesn’t reverse all of the terminations, then they should prepare for hundreds of additional similar lawsuits.”
TWO MORE THINGS
Three big wins for offshore wind
Offshore wind is beginning to move and groove again after the Trump administration’s December order that the nation’s five in-progress wind farms halt construction.
On Monday, a federal judge allowed Revolution Wind to resume work off the coast of Rhode Island. Equinor won a similar ruling on Thursday to keep building its Empire Wind project near New York. And Friday brought a third victory, with a judge letting Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind forge ahead. There’s no word yet on whether the two other affected installations can restart construction.
The federal stop-work order has put billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and gigawatts of much-needed power in jeopardy. Grid operator PJM Interconnection intervened in the Virginia project’s lawsuit late last week, saying its delay would threaten power supplies in the region. Equinor had said it may need to cancel Empire Wind altogether if it couldn’t restart work this week.
Meanwhile, Revolution Wind developer Ørsted said it’s not taking the court win for granted, and will hurry to install its final seven turbines before more setbacks arise.
A disappointing rebound in carbon emissions
After two years of declines, U.S. carbon emissions rose in 2025, according to a new Rhodium Group report. The 2.4% year-over-year increase is the third largest the U.S. has seen in the past decade, and shows that while the country is still heading toward decarbonization, major hurdles stand in its way.
Part of the increase can be chalked up to statistical “noise,” including an extra-cold winter that increased buildings’ space-heating needs, Rhodium Group analyst Michael Gaffney told Canary Media’s Julian Spector. But electricity usage also surged, largely thanks to data centers and other large power consumers, and carbon-spewing coal plants ramped up to meet that demand.
“This year is a bit of a warning sign on the power sector,” Gaffney said. “With growing demand, if we continue meeting it with the dirtiest of the fossil generators that currently exist, that’s going to increase emissions.”
WHAT TO KNOW THIS WEEK
Coal plans confirmed: U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the Trump administration intends to keep many more coal plants open past their scheduled closing dates, which could saddle utility customers with excessive costs. (New York Times)
Dismissing public health: The U.S. EPA plans to stop calculating how much money the country saves in avoided health care costs and deaths when it curbs fine particulate matter and ozone pollutants. (CNBC)
Make way for clean energy: California’s Westlands Water District approves a plan to build up to 21 GW of solar generation and another 21 GW of battery storage on water-parched land, which would be the largest solar and battery project in the country. (Canary Media)
You can pay your own way: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announces a plan to make sure data center power demand doesn’t raise costs for residents — a concept President Donald Trump also voiced support for in a social media post this week. (Axios, Washington Post)
Steel status report: 2025 saw major U.S. steel companies backing away from decarbonization investments and recommitting to coal-fired blast furnaces, but global demand for green steel is still on track to grow in the new year. (Canary Media)
The state of solar: Illinois’ solar industry is thriving despite federal obstacles, creating jobs that workforce training programs are preparing young people to fill. (Canary Media)
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