A coalition of 13 US states led by California announced Wednesday that they are suing the Trump administration over its decision to abruptly cancel over $1.2 billion in funding for clean energy projects.
"We will not allow (President Donald) Trump to sell out our future to his biggest donors. Trump didn’t just tear up a contract: he defied Congress, jeopardized more than 200,000 good-paying jobs, and robbed billions of dollars in health savings from communities that have been hit the hardest by pollution," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
"We’re not letting that stand. California will fight for these jobs, this infrastructure, and the global clean energy competitiveness that the Trump administration has ceded to China," he added.
The money was allocated by Congress for energy and infrastructure programs under former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The suit, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that Trump "illegally" terminated $1.2 billion in funding for a public-private partnership to produce clean hydrogen gas via a process known as electrolysis. An additional $4 million for upgrading energy efficiency in existing buildings was also ground to halt.
The cancellations are part of a wider trend in which the Trump administration has cancelled funding for clean energy projects in Democratic-led states, the suit alleges.
"The President is cherry-picking this funding at the expense of hardworking Americans and stifling innovation and the economy for the sake of partisan retribution. My office will continue to hold the President and his administration accountable for breaking the law," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin signed on to the suit.
It points directly to efforts pursued by the Trump administration to pressure Democratic lawmakers to sign on to a government funding bill last year ahead of what became the longest shutdown in US history.
Just one day after Trump threatened to "do things during the shutdown that are irreversible,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought posted on the US social media company X’s platform that "Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled."
Vought pointed explicitly to programs in 16 "blue states," or states governed by Democrats, that would be cut.
"In early October, as the Administration sought a cudgel to wield in budget negotiations, Defendants deployed this unlawful policy as an opportunistic way to hurt the Administration’s political enemies and those associated with them," the suit says.
"In our constitutional system, only Congress has the power to appropriate funding, and to define if and how federal programs are administered. It is the President’s duty, after that legislation is signed by the Executive, to execute those laws. He has no power to undo them, whether piecemeal or in their entirety," it adds.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the administration “is confident that we will defeat this frivolous lawsuit.”
“Left-wing politicians in Blue states are still doubling down on Joe Biden’s failed and costly Green New Scam policies that have driven up energy prices, hurting families and businesses. Meanwhile, President Trump has cancelled unpopular green energy subsidies that wasted Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars and is unleashing American energy,” she said in a statement.
By Michael Hernandez in Washington
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
