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(CN) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta led 16 states and the District of Columbia in suing the U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday, challenging the Trump administration’s delay of $4 billion in electric vehicle infrastructure funding approved by Congress under President Joe Biden.
“This isn’t about party politics, this is about the future of our economy, our country and our planet,” Bonta said in a press conference, adding: “Trump is running over the co-equal branch that holds the purse strings in this country."
Through his Jan. 20 executive order, Republican President Donald Trump promised to “terminate” the Green New Deal, directing federal agencies to cease disbursement of funds passed under Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. A Jan. 29 memo further targeted programs supporting “energy, climate change, diversity and gender.”
In an earlier lawsuit, a federal judge granted an injunction preventing the Trump administration from cutting off funding to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks to release billions of dollars of funding approved by Congress, including the $1.8 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.
The suit also seeks to reinstate $5 billion promised through the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator Program, passed in the Biden-era’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“As numerous courts across the country have confirmed, such categorical, indefinite and unreasonable freezes are arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law,” the states say in the 82-page complaint.
In the lawsuit, the states claim the funding is necessary to support the growing use of electric vehicles nationwide. California alone sees 2.4 million “zero emission” vehicles on its roads, including trucks, buses and passenger cars. The Golden State was counting on $180 million in federal funding to support projects, including an emissions-free freight line that would connect the entire West Coast.
Colorado anticipates $20 million in federal funding to support three hydrogen charging stations, as well as hundreds of electric charging stations statewide.
“They are implicitly undermining this program and leaving us in Never-Neverland,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in a press conference.
The EV suit marks California’s 50th challenge to the Trump administration and Colorado’s 47th. Weiser said many of them follow a similar constitutionally protected legal premise.
“I’m sorry we are a broken record, but the president does not have the power of the purse,” said Weiser, a Democrat. “Congress mandates the funds, and if the president doesn’t spend those funds, it’s illegal.”
Claiming violations of the separation of powers and the Administrative Procedure Act, the states ask the court to order the federal government to cease withholding the funds.
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