President Trump cuts $17 million in grants meant for San Diego County environmental firms.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Since the government shutdown, President Donald Trump has canceled nearly $28 billion in federal grants nationwide from congressional districts led by Democrats. More than $17 million was slated for San Diego County.

According to federal documents obtained by CBS 8, Trump has clawed back more than $15 million from two San Diego County-based companies that are working to repurpose lithium-ion batteries, as well as batteries used in electric vehicles.

In the 49th Congressional District, Representative Mike Levin’s office says the President revoked an $8.8 million grant for Carlsbad-based Smartville, which is working to rejuvenate electric car batteries. 

Also in the 49th District, Trump rescinded more than $2 million in grants to GKN Hydrogen, a company with an office in Carlsbad, which specializes in hydrogen storage systems that can recover lost heat in commercial and residential buildings.

In all, Trump clawed back $10.3 million that was initially awarded to the two Carlsbad companies. 

In the 50th District, Representative Scott Peters has seen more than $7 million vanish since the shutdown. 

That came with the president halting a single grant worth $7.2 million. The grant was awarded to ExPost Technology, also a Carlsbad-based business, which specializes in revitalizing lithium-ion batteries. 

The largest grant that was slashed, however, impacted numerous California congressional districts, including Representative Darrel Issa’s 48th District. That grant is a $1.2 billion public-private partnership called ARCHES, a project aimed at accelerating the use of hydrogen for energy. The partnership, according to its website, “provides home-grown fuels for the transportation system, including shipping and aviation; while improving public health and creating 220,000+ jobs.”

Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif., 50th District) said he has voted in 44 resolutions to either prevent or end government shutdowns since he was elected to Congress. Peters said this is the first time he has seen little to no negotiations take place.

“You can’t just do it with one party,” said Rep. Peters. “It’s really about sitting down and negotiating a compromise that would keep the government open. That’s what we want. Instead, what we got is the President trying to put pressure on Democrats by cutting grants. He’s targeting democratic districts.”

Peters said the grants the president is targeting are necessary, regardless of one’s party affiliation or political ideology.

“For the first time in many decades, we’re going to see a huge increase in the demand for electricity in the United States, like 15% and just for context, in the past few decades, it’s been one or 2% increase,” Peters told CBS 8. “So it’s going to be a huge increase because of manufacturing, because of AI. That means we have to generate a lot more electricity and power from all sources.”

That includes batteries, said Peters.

“Batteries are an important part of the power supply, and what these folks are trying to figure out is how to make batteries last longer through recycling. It’s something we need as Americans for energy production. It doesn’t matter if you care about climate change, but you should care about the cost of energy. If you don’t build enough energy to meet that demand, you know what’s going to happen to prices? We’re choosing between a future of higher energy prices and astronomically higher energy prices. And if you don’t take advantage of things like batteries, we’re looking at the worst scenario.”

Click here for a full list of all grants that were cut.Â