The Trump administration is routing money from a Korean War-era defense statute into oil, gas and coal projects, and the announcements are arriving in quick succession less than two weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
The Energy Department said this week it will provide up to $150 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding to expand domestic petroleum production, storage and logistics at refineries across the country. The department said the work should add millions of gallons a day to American refining output, and that it will name the selected projects later.
The spending rests on Presidential Determination No. 2026-11, which classifies domestic petroleum production, refining and logistics capacity as essential to national defense — the legal finding the statute requires before its authorities can be used.
"These Defense Production Act funds will be used strategically and in partnership with private industry," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in the department's announcement.
A pipeline New York regulators fought
Three days earlier, Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared at a gas plant in Dover, New York, to announce $42 million for the Constitution Pipeline, a 125-mile natural gas line from Pennsylvania into New York that has been stalled for years. The developer, The Williams Cos., says the finished pipeline would supply roughly 3 million homes.
New York state regulators and environmental groups have fought the project. According to Roll Call, their objections center on forest clearing, damage to sensitive ecosystems, health risks from expanded fracking upstream, and the argument that new gas capacity crowds out renewable generation that could bring bills down faster.
The same week brought two more commitments. The department said it would put up to $50 million into a two-year Appalachian Power project adding about 290 megawatts of transmission capacity, with $40 million of that going to upgrade 14 miles of line around Lynchburg, Virginia. And Vice President JD Vance announced that Defense Production Act authorities would be used to expand a Delek US Holdings refinery in Tyler, Texas, without disclosing an amount.
Earlier commitments cited by Roll Call include up to $425 million to upgrade 13 coal-fired power plants and up to $75 million for a coal export terminal in Oakland, California.
Where the money comes from
The pot is finite and was created recently. Roll Call reported that Republicans included a $1 billion appropriation for Defense Production Act purchases in the July 2025 reconciliation law, with the funds available until September 30, 2027. The Energy Department describes the same money as appropriated through the "Working Families Tax Cuts" for energy projects deemed critical to national security.
The statute itself does not specify what the money must buy. Two executive orders — one signed in March extending the authority to Wright, another in September extending it to Burgum — allow the secretaries to offer financial incentives for energy production. Presidential determinations have since classified natural gas, liquefied natural gas and related infrastructure, along with grid components such as transformers and transmission lines, as essential to national defense.
That is a wide reading of a law written in 1950 to secure materials for war production. It is also what makes the spending possible without new legislation.
The map matters
Several of the announcements landed in districts where control of the House is in play. Representative Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who appeared at the Constitution Pipeline event, faces Democrat Cait Conley in a race Inside Elections rates a Toss-up. Representative John McGuire, who attended the Virginia transmission announcement, is running against Democrat Tom Perriello in a seat rated likely Republican.
The administration has framed the projects around energy security and lower household costs. Utility bills and inflation have been among the most-discussed issues of the campaign, which gives the timing an obvious political dimension — and gives candidates in close races a federal check to stand next to.
Reporting from the U.S. Department of Energy and Roll Call.
