Biden-era grant was aimed at propping up an unprofitable hydrogen power company
The Department of Energy is canceling a $45.7 million grant that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) helped secure for Plug Power, a green energy firm whose executives donated tens of thousands of dollars to his campaign, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The Biden administration awarded the grant in March 2024 to boost Plug Power’s manufacturing capabilities at its hydrogen production facilities in New York. Trump officials explained in internal documents reviewed by the Free Beacon that they canceled the grant over serious doubts about the hydrogen power industry’s long-term financial viability.
“Hydrogen technologies require high upfront capital and ongoing subsidies, creating significant exposure for federal funds with no guarantee of cost-effective returns,” they wrote. “Committing large sums of public money to hydrogen risks locking the government into supporting an industry that may never achieve scale or self-sufficiency.”
Like other hydrogen power companies, Plug Power has struggled financially. In 2024, the company reported losses in excess of $2 billion, a year-over-year increase of 50 percent. Earlier this year, it announced significant layoffs due to economic factors.
In a statement, Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh said the company is aware of reports regarding the Department of Energy’s grant, but had not heard from the agency directly yet. “While government support has been helpful along the way, our long-term success is driven by the strong global demand for our solutions,” he said.
The cancellation of Plug Power’s grant comes amid the ongoing Democrat-caused government shutdown, which President Donald Trump is using as an opportunity to gut billions of dollars in government spending. The grant is one of hundreds of grants worth a total of $7.5 billion that the Department of Energy announced it would cancel on Wednesday. The agency hasn’t released the full list of canceled grants.
It is a significant blow to Schumer, who has orchestrated the shutdown as Senate minority leader and who has been one of Plug Power’s biggest cheerleaders.
Schumer immediately took credit for the grant after it was announced last year, noting that it was made possible by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act he helped write. Plug Power, Schumer remarked at the time, will now be able to increase its production “while supporting good paying clean energy jobs and boosting the fight against climate change.”
Meanwhile, as Schumer, other Democratic lawmakers, and Biden White House officials finalized the 2021 infrastructure bill’s language in late 2021, Plug Power’s top executives funneled max donations to Friends of Schumer, the New York Democrat’s political action committee, according to federal campaign disclosures.
Between Oct. 8 and Oct. 19, 2021, 15 Plug Power executives, including Marsh, board chairman George McNamee, and general counsel Gerard Conway, donated a total of $37,100 to Friends of Schumer. Former president Joe Biden signed the bill into law weeks later in November 2021.
At the same time, Schumer publicly advocated for Plug Power to build its facilities in northern New York. Days after Congress passed the infrastructure law in November 2021, the company announced it would open a new hydrogen gigafactory in Monroe County, New York, and thanked Schumer for his support.
“With an unprecedented $9.5 billion federal investment that I just secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to expand the hydrogen fuel cell industry…the Gigafactory’s opening today comes at the perfect time to power up even more Rochester jobs and growth at Plug Power to jumpstart the 21st century green hydrogen economy,” Schumer said.
In January 2023, Schumer cut the ceremonial ribbon, opening Plug Power’s gigafactory in Monroe County.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
