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Rutgers University Professor Dunbar Birnie and Assistant Professor Ethan Schoolman have been growing tomatoes, Sicilian eggplant and bell peppers as part of a research project into agrivoltaics, an emerging technology where farmers can grow their crops under clean energy producing solar panels.

But the project is now one of the casualties from the $7.56 billion in U.S. Department of Energy funding cuts to hundreds of renewable energy projects in mostly blue states, including New Jersey and Delaware. No projects were cut in Pennsylvania, a state that voted for President Donald Trump in November.

Delaware and New Jersey, however, stand to lose approximately $43.5 million from the cancellations, according to a list released by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.

“We’re now having to beg for internal funding to continue some of the work,” Birnie said. “The funds are short internally and so it’s hard to do what we had hoped to do with the DOE funding.”

Wednesday’s move to cancel 321 financial awards supporting 223 projects in 16 Democratic-led states appeared to show Trump’s administration taking advantage of the government shutdown to punish Democratic states.

“Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled,” said Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a post on social platform X.

Democratic New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone criticised the Trump administration’s decision on social media.

“The Trump Admin continues to steal billions of dollars in promised funds to communities in New Jersey and other states that Trump lost last year,” Pallone posted on X. “Congress should stand united against this ongoing illegal action, but Republicans continue to sit on the sidelines as Trump kills jobs and increases monthly energy bills.”

Rutgers’ agrivoltaics was initially awarded $1.6 million. But DOE nixed $602,180 of that, Schoolman said.

He said one of their partners was Delaware State University, a historically Black university. He said DSU used its part of the grant to do outreach activities and had planned to build its own experimental research site.

“They were really excited about it,” Schoolman said. “And the administration was very excited about it, and it was kind of a big deal for them to have this grant.”

DSU’s funding was cut by $67,000, Schoolman said. A DSU spokesperson confirmed their participation and said they have yet to receive a notice canceling the award from the Trump administration.

Rutgers had funding terminated for two other projects, according to the Appropriations Committee list, totaling $6.2 million for all three.

According to the Department of Energy’s list of project terminations, the University of Delaware, Chemours Company and Princeton University also lost funding.

Moment Energy, a company registered in Delaware, had their project in Texas defunded.

Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride said in a statement that the termination of these projects is a political ploy that will raise energy costs for Delawareans who are already facing high costs.

“These are mobster tactics — the Trump administration is illegally slashing programs during this government shutdown in an attempt to force Democrats to vote for their cuts to health care and other lifesaving services,” she said. “I will not be intimidated into giving this president a blank check to dismantle the very programs families rely on.”

Funding cuts affect red states too

DOE’s announcement and subsequent list includes the names of the recipient, but not the name of the project or the amount of money being eliminated.

But through DOE contract numbers and news releases, WHYY News identified several of the likely affected projects.

Moment Energy was awarded $20 million last year to build a factory in Taylor, Texas, to repurpose electric vehicle batteries. Democrats said the entire award was terminated. The company is headquartered in Canada.

Chemours, a chemical company headquartered in Wilmington, was given $60 million in 2024 for projects related to clean hydrogen energy production. The House Appropriations list of projects shows the company’s funding was cut by $10 million.

The University of Delaware suffered a total loss of $6.5 million for two projects, one was for developing large offshore wind blade spar caps and the other was related to using artificial intelligence to manufacture composite materials for products like cars and airplanes. The collaboration includes the University of Florida, South Carolina State University and Ohio State University.

Princeton University research on energy technologies, including solar, biomass, hydrogen and fuel cells, wind, hydropower and geothermal technology, was cut by nearly $2 million.

Requests for comment to Moment Energy, Chemours, The University of Delaware and Princeton University received no response.

In its news release Wednesday, the Trump administration said that “following a thorough, individualized financial review, DOE determined that these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.”

Despite slashing funds for two hydrogen hubs on the west coast, the Philadelphia region’s MACH2 clean energy hub, which includes a number of projects in Delaware, was spared.

All of the award recipients whose funding was eliminated have 30 days to appeal the decisions.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.