New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration Friday to block the Department of Energy from imposing a new funding cap that cut support for needed state-run energy programs.
James and the other Democratic attorneys general argued that blocking appropriated funding for state energy programs, in turn jeopardizes states’ ability to keep them running. They noted it would raise energy costs for residents.
“New Yorkers count on state energy programs to save money on their bills, prepare homes for extreme weather, and move toward clean, affordable energy,”James said in a statement. “The Department of Energy’s cuts threaten to pull the rug out from under those efforts. We’re taking them to court to protect the funding that keeps these programs running for families across New York.”
The attorneys general asked the court to block the Department of Energy’s move and restore the legally required reimbursement rates for energy programs.
Federal law for decades has required federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, to negotiate funding agreements with states to set fair reimbursement rates for federally funded, state-run programs. These rates have never been subject to a cap.
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In May, the Department of Energy said it would implement a new policy that capped indirect and employee benefit costs at 10% of a project’s total budget, no matter what the negotiated rate was.
The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and District of Columbia, joined James in the lawsuit as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
