Missouri Battery Plant Cancels Project After Trump Pulled $200 Million Grant, Killing 1,000 Jobs 

Washington, DC – ICL Specialty Products Inc. announced they are canceling plans to build a battery plant in Missouri that was projected to create 150 permanent jobs and 900 union construction jobs. The decision comes just weeks after the Trump administration used the Republican government shutdown as an opportunity to cancel $200 million in grant funding for ICL as part of their war on clean energy. 

Trump and Republicans have canceled projects in red and blue states across the country that would have brought more energy onto the grid and lowered energy costs for American families. According to Climate Power’s October Energy Crisis Snapshot, over 158,000 jobs have already been lost or stalled in the clean energy sector since Trump’s election. Meanwhile, Chinese electric vehicle sales are “booming” and they’re stepping in to become the global leader in clean energy as Trump escalates his attacks on renewables.  

Climate Power Senior Advisor Jesse Lee issued the following statement: 

“On the campaign trail, Trump promised to bring American manufacturing back. Almost a year later, all he’s done is give China a leg-up in the race to power our global economy. Instead of working to help the people he was elected to represent, Trump and Republicans have used clean energy jobs as bargaining chips in order to get what they really want: tax cuts for their billionaire buddies. In 2026, they’re going to pay the political price at the ballot box.” 

Trump’s reckless energy policies are leaving a trail of shuttered projects across the country:

• Leading Light Wind pulled the plug on construction of an offshore wind project in New Jersey that would have generated enough electricity to power a million homes. 

• A solar firm in North Carolina laid off 78% of its workforce after filing for bankruptcy due to renewable energy policy changes under the Trump administration.  

• QCells, a solar manufacturing plant in Georgia, announced that it would be furloughing 1,000 workers and permanently laying off an additional 300.

• In just two months, six clean energy projects were closed in Michigan, including most recently, two electric vehicle battery plants that laid off 324 workers. 

• Last month, General Motors laid off 1,200 workers at its electric vehicle plant in Detroit, along with hundreds of additional permanent and temporary layoffs at battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee. 

• In October, Topsoe cited the repeal of clean energy tax credits as a reason for canceling 150 jobs and a $400 million investment in their Richmond, Virginia facility. 

• Earlier last month, Fox 2 Detroit reported that over 100 employees at Dana Incorporated, an electric vehicle battery component manufacturer in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had been laid off.

• General Motors canceled a $55 million factory that would have created 300 jobs, citing “decisions of the DOE”. 

• Fortescue blamed U.S. “policy settings” and the elimination of “critical tax credits” in Trump and Republicans’ budget bill for the cancellation of their $210 million Detroit EV battery factory. 

• Trump used the government shutdown as an opportunity to sow even more chaos and uncertainty for American workers by cancelling $8 billion in investments in states that did not vote for him. The Trump administration has put $24 billion for energy projects on the chopping block since May. 

• Trump’s federal energy policies contributed to battery startup, Natron Energy, shutting down and canceling its planned $1.4 billion factory in Eastern North Carolina, which would have created 1,000 jobs. 

• Blue Ridge Power blamed insurmountable “market headwinds” impacting the renewable energy industry for their decision to lay off 517 workers in North Carolina. 

• Trump planned to revoke federal permitting for a Maryland wind farm, which would have powered 718,000 homes and supported more than 1,300 jobs.