- President Donald Trump’s first year in office has ushered in big changes for clean energy in Michigan
- The state has seen $540 million in canceled climate grants and a dramatic decrease in green energy-related investments
- Analysts expect the trend to continue as shifting federal policies prompt a renewed embrace of gas-powered vehicles and fossil fuel energy generation
What a difference a year (and a political leadership change) makes.
At this time in 2024, Michigan was expecting a windfall of federal funds to fuel a transition to clean energy, along with billions of dollars’ worth of green manufacturing projects subsidized by the Biden administration’s signature climate spending bills.
But since President Donald Trump began his second term in January and began scrapping federal climate programs he refers to collectively as “the green new scam,” Michigan has seen a wave of project and grant cancellations, along with renewed investment in fossil fuel-based manufacturing and power generation.
Roughly $540 million in climate-related grants to Michigan have been canceled or held up since Inauguration Day, according to a national database compiled by Atlas Public Policy, while shifting market forces and the end of federal tax credits for electric vehicles have caused clean manufacturing investments in Michigan to whipsaw from billions annually in recent years to $3 billion in canceled investments this year.
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“It certainly mirrors what we’re seeing nationally,” said Annabelle Rosser, a research analyst with the national firm.
Instead, Michigan automakers are scaling back and refocusing on gas and hybrid vehicle production — a trend emblemized by Ford’s and General Motors’ recent decisions to scrap EV production plans at Michigan plants and retool to produce gas-powered vehicles.
“That’s just the way the market is shaking out right now,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, an affiliate of the Detroit Regional Chamber.
It’s a trend likely to continue into 2026, as Trump administration officials continue their efforts to downplay climate change, deemphasize renewable energy and embrace fossil fuels.
Here’s where things stand in Michigan as the year draws to a close:
$540 million in canceled funding
Michigan has seen $540 million in cancelled funding, with the biggest chunk coming from the Solar for All Program, a $7 billion US Environmental Protection Agency fund meant to expand solar energy in disadvantaged communities.
Michigan had been slated to receive a $156 million grant through that fund, while Native American tribes in the state were expecting part of a $62 million grant shared with other Great Lakes tribes.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has sued over the grant cancellations, joining 22 other states to argue the administration “unilaterally and illegally terminated” the program, overstepping checks and balances to cancel congressionally approved funding.
Beyond the solar program, the federal government has cancelled or proposed to cancel more than 20 Michigan grants ranging from $31.7 million to help LuxWall Inc. build an energy-efficient window glass factory in Detroit to $14,000 for a west Michigan climate resilience project.
Other canceled grants include:
- $28.2 million for TS Conductor to build a high-capacity power line plant in Erie
- $20.4 million for Ecoworks, a Detroit nonprofit that planned to convert houses of worship into climate resilience hubs
- $20 million for the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan to improve energy efficiency in tribal homes
- $20 million for the Southwestern Michigan Planning Commission to build two resilience hubs in Benton Harbor, upgrade energy efficiency in low-income housing and support a workforce development initiative
Smaller grants would have funded energy efficient housing in Kalamazoo, a climate change and resilience plan for the city of Flint and wild rice bed restoration in Michigan waterways.
The Trump administration has also frozen a $20 billion federal “green bank” network that had been expected to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Michigan to build and rehab housing across the state, insulate old homes and boost energy efficiency in factories.
Trump officials have signaled that more cancellations could be coming as they review tens of billions of dollars in clean energy funds awarded by the previous administration.
Michigan utilities, for example, are awaiting word on the status of $15 billion in clean energy-related loans announced days before Trump took office. And the Trump administration is reevaluating a grant program that awarded $500 million to retool a Lansing GM factory for electrified vehicles.
An exception to the administration’s shift of resources away from Biden-era energy policies: It has continued making disbursements from a $1.5 billion loan authorized in 2024 to support the reopening of the Palisades nuclear power plant and in December announced another $400 million to develop two new reactors at the site.
“President Trump has made clear that America is going to build more energy, not less, and nuclear is central to that mission,” US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement accompanying the grant announcement.
$3 billion in canceled projects
Spurred along by federal and state subsidies and regulations that encouraged automakers to build EVs and consumers to buy them, Michigan manufacturers announced a collective $23.8 billion in new investments tied to the energy transition between 2022 and 2024, mostly related to battery or EV plants.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the trendline has reversed. Michigan saw $3 billion worth of disinvestment this year as companies scrapped planned EV factories or closed existing ones, according to the Atlas analysis.
Spokespeople for the US Department of Energy, which has overseen efforts to reprioritize fossil fuels by shifting federal resources and loosening vehicle emissions regulations, did not respond to requests for comment from Bridge Michigan.
But Trump has routinely cast EVs as a costly “scam” while downplaying the effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels like gasoline. During a December announcement that his administration would loosen fuel economy standards applying to new vehicles, Trump cast his pro-gas policies as a win for consumers that would “protect American jobs” and shave “at least $1,000 off the price of a new car.”
The biggest EV-related cancellation is the Gotion project, a once-planned $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids that spent years embroiled in controversy before state officials declared the project dead this fall.
In that case, Rosser, the Atlas analyst, said, shifting federal policies weren’t the only factor.
“The rollback of the (Inflation Reduction Act) clean energy tax credits, softening demand for electric vehicles, and concerns about the company’s foreign ownership are all likely factors,” Rosser said.
This fall, batterymaker XALT Energy announced plans to close its Midland headquarters and an Auburn Hills facility just two years after announcing plans to spend a “double digit million sum” expanding the facility.
Automotive supplier Dana Inc., which had vowed to invest $54.2 million at an Auburn Hills EV battery plant by the end of 2024, instead announced this fall that it would close the plant amid an “unexpected and immediate reduction in customer orders driven by lower demand for electric vehicles.”
Fortescue canceled an under-construction $210 million EV charger, battery and hydrogen generator plant at the former Fisher Body site in Detroit, citing shifting US markets and policies including the loss of “critical tax credits.”
Other losses included the closure of an Akasol electric vehicle battery factory in Warren and cancelled plans to build a TS Conductor high-voltage direct current conductor plant in Erie using a since-cancelled $28 million federal grant.
TS Conductor is still building the plant, but switched locations to South Carolina after receiving what company CEO Jason Huang described as a “very generous incentive package.”
Timelines and ambitions for numerous other EV and battery factory projects in Michigan have shifted amid the changing policies and market forces. GM, for instance, sold its stake in a planned EV battery factory near Lansing to LG Energy Solution and the plant’s planned opening has been delayed from 2025 to 2026. And Ford has scaled back plans for an EV battery plant near Marshall, now slated to open in 2026.
Stevens said he expects the EV market to grow in 2026, but “it’s not going to be at the acceleration curve that a lot of people projected, and certainly the previous administration was pushing.”
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