Oct 5, 2025 7:40 a.m. 

On Friday, U.S. Congresswoman Val Hoyle alongside Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and other Democratic members of the Oregon Congressional delegation issued a statement denouncing the Trump Administration’s cancellation of nearly $500 million in Department of Energy grants to support energy reliability, resilience, and efficiency projects in Oregon.

Lawmakers said, “While Oregonians are already struggling with rising costs, Trump and his Administration are raising energy prices even further by illegally terminating grants to blue states that would have helped provide families with clean, affordable energy while keeping that money flowing only to states that voted for him”.

The statement continued, “These grants would have helped every Oregonian by lowering the cost to adapt to rising energy demands for AI and data centers, the cost to modernize our grid, and the cost to address wildfires caused by outdated transmission infrastructure”.

The Democratic lawmakers said the move is, “…a brazenly political attempt to hurt Oregonians and trample on the Constitution by undermining Congress’ power of the purse”.

The statement concluded, “We stand ready to work with the President if he gets serious about reducing costs rather than using families as pawns in his sick political game”.