California sues Trump administration over billions in canceled clean energy funding
California sues Trump administration End of billions of dollars in financing State officials announced Wednesday that awards are being made for high-profile clean energy projects under President Biden. This is the 58th lawsuit filed against the president in California since his re-election last year.
complaint In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, an appeal was filed against the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget to cancel approximately $2.7 billion in funding allocated to programs under the Biden Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. States that did not vote for Trump In the 2024 presidential elections.
This includes $1.2 billion in federal funding for California’s massive effort to develop clean hydrogen and $4 million for energy-efficient building improvements in the state, among other items.
The funding cuts reflect “partisan revenge” and will lead to layoffs of more than 200,000 union workers, higher energy prices and worse pollution in California, the attorney said. Gen. Rob Bonta, who is handling the case along with attorneys general from Washington and Colorado. Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin also joined the lawsuit.
“These are not optional programs; these are investments approved by a bipartisan majority in Congress, and the President cannot cancel them just because he disagrees with them,” Bonta told reporters Wednesday. “California will not allow President Trump and his administration to play politics with our economy, our energy grid, and our jobs.”
The suit alleges the terminations were an unlawful violation of the constitutional separation of powers because the money was approved by a bipartisan majority in Congress, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires government agencies to follow fair and transparent procedures when making regulations and decisions. He asks the court to declare the administration’s actions unlawful and to permanently bar him from interfering with these programs.
Representatives of the Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But the president has issued executive orders since his first day in office. Declaring a “national energy emergency”“and I call Repeal of the Green New DealA plan to transition the United States to renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In September, Trump told reporters he was open:cutting programs [Democrats] like“As the government shutdown approached. The next day, OMB director Russell Vought Published on X He said the administration had canceled “nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda” in 16 states that did not vote for Trump in 2024.
The Department of Energy announced its cuts the next day. It included more than 300 financial awards for 223 projects that the agency said “do not adequately meet the nation’s energy needs, are not economically sustainable, and will not provide a positive return on taxpayers’ investment.”
Among the cuts was a $1.2 billion federal grant to California’s hydrogen hub, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, or ARCHES. The center was part of the Biden administration’s competitive nationwide effort to develop hydrogen projects that could replace planet-warming fossil fuels, especially in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as heavy trucking and port operations.
Also cut was $4 million given to California under the Resilient and Efficient Code Enforcement (RECI) program, which supports new energy-efficient building codes.
Cutting energy and infrastructure programs will save an estimated $3 billion in annual health costs tied to air pollution, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. He said the cuts would also erode the country’s position as a global leader in the transition to clean energy.
“California will fight for these jobs, for this infrastructure, for the global clean energy competitiveness that the Trump administration has ceded to China,” Newsom said.
More than 165,000 jobs have been lost or postponed in the clean energy sector since Trump’s election, according to one report. scout from the nonprofit Climate Power, It says projects taken offline could generate electricity equivalent to 13 million homes.
Meanwhile, residential electric bills increased by nearly 12% nationwide in 2025; It rose from 15.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in January to 17.8 cents at the end of November. US Energy Information Administration.
