Democratic members of Colorado’s federal delegation in Congress are demanding answers from President Donald Trump’s administration after it canceled over $600 million in energy projects for the state.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was cancelling more than $7.5 billion in federal funding for clean energy projects across 16 states. That included cancelling 38 projects in Colorado. 

Much of the clean energy funding came from the 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, two key legislative priorities of former President Joe Biden. 

In an Oct. 14 letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Reps. Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Brittany Pettersen and Diana DeGette said the cancellations “will result in the abandonment of cutting-edge research and private-sector investments, threatening Colorado jobs and energy affordability.”

The funding was designated for a wide range of projects across private industries, utilities, universities, state agencies and rural electric cooperatives, the lawmakers said. Those investments included university testing facilities, grid reliability improvements, rural cooperative load management, oil and gas infrastructure upgrades and dispatchable power for transitioning communities.

“We are concerned about the effect of these cancellations on Colorado’s workforce, economy, and energy costs,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to Wright, a longtime oil and gas industry executive from Colorado. 

“As a Colorado native, you know firsthand that families, farmers and businesses across our state depend on affordable, dependable energy to power their homes, grow their crops and sustain local economies,” their letter continued. 

Lawmakers pressed Wright for “detailed responses” to a list of questions about the Department of Energy’s justification for cancelling projects in Colorado, including how many of the 38 projects had a signed legal contract in place. 

They also asked Wright whether he had sought the input of longtime department staff or an external review when deciding what projects to cancel, whether the department had analyzed what the cancellations would mean for the economy, and information on how to appeal. 

The  Department of Energy, when it announced the cancellations, said entities would have 30 days to appeal the decision. Lawmakers asked what the criteria are for a project’s funding to be reinstated and how long it could take to renew that funding. 

The funding cutoffs are part of a larger push by the Trump administration to overturn Biden-era climate policies that it has labelled “‘green’ corporate welfare.” Trump’s marquee domestic policy bill from this summer included a rollback of subsidies for electric vehicles and clean energy home upgrades, as well as an end to tax breaks for clean energy projects for the private sector. 

Wright, in a statement earlier this month, framed the cancellation of $7.5 billion in projects 

as a way to save money for taxpayers. He said the funding had been “rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard.”

“President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable and secure energy,” Wright said. “Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people.”

Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers warned that the canceled projects could raise energy costs at a time of rising demand. They cited a statistic from the Colorado Energy Office that shows the state could see a 14% increase in peak energy demand by 2031.

A study released in July by Princeton University’s Zero Lab also found that ending clear energy tax credits as part of congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act could increase energy costs for U.S. households and businesses by $28 billion annually in 2030 and by over $50 billion in 2035. That equates to a roughly $165 increase per household per year in 2030 and a $230 increase by 2035, according to the study.