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Wright With Kaitlan Collins: DOE Reviewed 2,400 Projects and the Cancellations Will Not Be Restored

October 3, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:59

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview posted October 3, 2025, according to the Department of Energy’s recording. Wright said the decision to cancel the energy projects was made inside the Department of Energy, by a team of seven or eight people who evaluated over 2,400 projects purely on business conditions and whether they make sense for American taxpayers. He said the decisions were made over the preceding months and were not tied to the government shutdown that began the day of the announcement, though he acknowledged OMB Director Russ Vought announced them first and said he does not always control announcement timing.

Wright said plainly that if Democrats voted to reopen the government the next day, the department would not restore the cancelled projects, because they are business decisions about good use of taxpayer money. He said all of the awards contain cancellation clauses for projects not in the taxpayers’ interest, that a number of recipient companies have gone bankrupt or failed first milestones while still seeking second-milestone funding, and that the majority of projects reviewed have continued to be funded. He said no comprehensive list has been published because most decisions have not been released yet, that hydrogen hubs including those in Republican-controlled states are being evaluated through the same lens, and that the full results will be released over the coming weeks after thousands of work hours of review, as he described the process.

Wright criticized examples he cited from the prior deployment of funds, including federal money toward decarbonizing Uber Eats in San Francisco, e-bike lanes in Portland, and $600 million to further subsidize construction of what he called unreliable, expensive electricity sources in California. He argued that cancelling projects would not raise electricity bills, saying prices rose over the prior four years because only wind, solar and expensive transmission could be permitted, with the costs landing in ratepayers’ rate base.

Why it matters

The cancellations are the largest single clawback of Biden-era energy spending, and Wright’s insistence that they are business decisions insulated from the shutdown fight sets up the legal and political challenges the affected states and companies bring next.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright said on October 2, 2025 that the full results of the department’s project reviews would be released over the following few weeks — a dated commitment flagged for the scoreboard editors, with no verdict entered here.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNN’s Kaitlan Collins - October 2, 2025”, 2025-10-03 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-10-03). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.