“DOE’s funding cap disrupts the very programs helping our communities with energy costs and the transition to clean power,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
A coalition of governors, attorneys general, and state agencies has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy, which recently introduced a new funding cap that would cut support for state-level energy programs.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that, if the cuts take effect, states would be forced to cover the cost of programs that had long been funded by the federal government.
“DOE’s funding cap disrupts the very programs helping our communities with energy costs and the transition to clean power,” Bonta said in a statement. “Slashing budgets will have both immediate and long-term consequences, especially for the underserved communities that rely on them most. This is about equity, sustainability, and basic energy security, and that’s why I, alongside a multistate coalition, am filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to halt this funding cap immediately.”
The California Energy Commission, or CCE, is named as a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.
In a separate statement, CEC Chair David Hochschild suggested that the Trump administration’s proposed reimbursement rates are inherently problematic.
“DOE’s new reimbursement rate changes would undermine the federally funded state-run energy programs that help make our energy cleaner, more reliable and more affordable,” Hochschild said. “We are challenging this policy change because it is unfair, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
Bonta’s office emphasized that other states have successfully challenged the Trump administration’s cuts to and limits on other programs.
“The coalition argues that the new policy violates federal regulations that require agencies to honor negotiated indirect cost rates between states and the federal government,” Bonta’s office said in a statement. “They assert that DOE’s sudden policy shift mirrors similar caps that federal courts have recently struck down, and also additional federal regulations regarding “fringe” costs that pay for employee benefits. The attorneys general emphasize that every court to have ruled on the merits of such blanket limits has found them unlawful, unjustified, and disruptive to essential public programs.”
The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Sources
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