The Department of Energy canceled a $4.9 billion loan for a massive multistate transmission project, which would apparently provide upward of five new gigawatts of energy across four states in the Midwest.

This is the latest move by the Trump administration to withdraw support for the renewable energy industry. The project, the Grain Belt Express, would primarily connect to wind and solar power facilities.

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The agency said the conditional commitment for the loan, issued by the Loan Programs Office, was “rushed out the door” in the final weeks of the Biden administration.

“After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project,” the Energy Department said in a statement.

“To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources, DOE has terminated its conditional commitment,” the statement continued. 

The decision comes just weeks after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he secured a promise from Energy Secretary Chris Wright to cancel the loan guarantee announced in November.

He said the project, which he described as a “green scam,” would rip “generational land” away from Missouri families and farmers.

Invenergy, the owner and developer of the transmission line, hit back at Hawley’s criticism, saying the project would support grid reliability, create thousands of jobs, and increase domestic energy investment.

The Grain Belt Express transmission line is expected to stretch more than 800 miles across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Invenergy has said it will add around 5,000 megawatts of energy to four grid regions in those states.

While the company originally planned to use energy generated by wind farms in Kansas, it was revealed this week that it is also interested in connecting new natural gas power and existing coal generation to the transmission lines.

The company asserts that the Grain Belt Express is not a green project, but a highway for all types of electricity.

In recent months, energy experts have insisted that upgrading and adding new transmission to the grid is just as important, or even more in some cases, as developing new generation to meet soaring demand.

The $4.9 billion conditional commitment for the Grain Belt Express transmission line is one of several loans that current and former LPO staffers have said should be finalized to support the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda.

Jennifer Downing, former civil servant and chairwoman of the LPO’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program, appealed to Republican and Democratic Congress members earlier this month to help advance these deals.

The LPO has not finalized a single loan agreement since the Trump administration took office in January.

FORMER DOE OFFICIAL PRESSES GOP FOR RELEASE OF OVER $40B IN LOANS

In its Wednesday announcement, the Department of Energy said it is reviewing every applicant and borrower with closed loans and conditional commitments made by the LPO before Inauguration Day.

“This ongoing review positions LPO to move forward with a lower risk tolerance in lending practices and an uncompromising focus on expanding access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people,” the agency said.