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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 13 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful decision to terminate funding for congressionally mandated energy and infrastructure programs. These programs were created by Congress in laws such as the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenges the decisions by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), DOE Secretary Chris Wright, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and OMB Director Russell Vought, to terminate billions of dollars in energy and infrastructure awards nationwide.
“Energy and infrastructure programs are putting Marylanders to work, cutting families’ energy costs, and protecting our climate,” said Attorney General Brown. “We’re taking the Administration to court because these unlawful cuts threaten the clean energy future that our children and grandchildren deserve.”
On January 20th, 2025, his first day in office, President Trump issued executive orders, declaring a “national energy emergency” and “Terminating the Green New Deal.” Pursuant to this directive, the DOE compiled a “hit list” of energy and infrastructure awards worth billions of dollars. The list was intended to further the administration’s unlawful objective of eliminating energy and infrastructure programs created under Congress’s authority in laws such as the IIJA and the IRA. In May 2025, DOE issued a policy memorandum asserting that it would subject projects to which it had previously awarded funding to a vague and opaque “review” process that was in truth designed to provide cover to eliminate energy and infrastructure programs.
As a government shutdown loomed in late September 2025, President Trump told reporters he could “do things during the shutdown that are irreversible” to attack Democrats, including “cutting programs that they like.” The next day, Director of OMB Russell Vought posted on X that DOE would be terminating nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam” funding to fuel ‘the Left’s climate agenda.’” The post listed sixteen states where projects would be defunded, all Democratically leaning. DOE announced the cuts the next day, citing their May 2025 policy memorandum. Meanwhile, throughout the first year of the Trump administration, DOE has quietly abandoned projects, including those contained in various “kill lists.” All were funded as elements of high-profile energy and infrastructure legislation, including bipartisan legislation, passed during the previous presidential administration.
In Maryland, DOE terminated or abandoned three cooperative agreements totaling more than $5.8 million with the University of Maryland, College Park. The awards funded research into advanced heat pump systems and next-generation refrigeration technologies designed to reduce energy consumption. For Maryland families, these innovations mean lower energy bills and more affordable heating and cooling. They also support cleaner air and a healthier Chesapeake Bay –the kinds of environmental gains that protect public health in communities across the state.
The complaint filed today alleges that the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate energy programs created by Congress is unlawful because it violates the separation of powers and the Administrative Procedure Act. The programs were created by statute, and federal agencies have a duty to faithfully execute those statutes. Maryland and the coalition ask the court to declare that the Trump administration’s actions are unlawful and to permanently stop the administration from interfering with these programs.
In filing this complaint, Attorney General Brown is joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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