California has filed its 50th lawsuit against the Trump administration this year — this time over the suspension of federal funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, state officials announced Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration allegedly have refused to approve any new funding for two grant programs created under President Biden, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program and the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator program, since this spring, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington state. The programs were intended to build, repair and maintain electric vehicle chargers.
The U.S. EV charging network continues to expand. California has more than 201,000 public EV charging ports, compared with about 120,000 gasoline nozzles statewide, according to state data. But to address climate change, it needs more.
The complaint says the Trump administration’s actions violate the constitutional separation of powers because the funding was approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress. It asks the court to declare the administration’s actions unlawful and order it to resume processing the funds, which amount to about $3 billion.
“Bipartisan is not a word you hear a lot these days, but one that underscores this isn’t about party politics — it’s about the future of our country, our economy and our planet,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta told reporters Tuesday. “Trump is putting the brakes on projects that would reduce planet-warming pollution and smog, expand access to clean vehicles and create thousands of green jobs, and in doing so, he’s running over the co-equal branch of Congress that holds the purse strings in this country.”
Bonta led the suit with the attorneys general of Washington and Colorado, who were joined by a coalition of 13 other states and Washington, D.C.
The White House press office and the Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump in January directed all federal agencies to immediately stop disbursing funds from the two grant programs as part of his executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which described such efforts as “burdensome and ideologically motivated” as well as costly to American consumers.
The five-year grant programs were created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress in 2021. The Charging and Fueling program directed $2.5 billion to state and local governments for EV chargers and hydrogen fueling infrastructure while the Accelerator program awards grants to state and localities for the maintenance and repair of EV chargers.
Together, they provide $179.8 million in federal funds to California to help build out its network of public fast EV chargers, Bonta said.
That includes a $59.3-million award to the California Department of Transportation to build out a freight corridor for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles; $55.9 million to the California Energy Commission for zero-emission freight transportation along key freight corridors and major ports; and $63.1 million to Caltrans for the repair and replacement of broken EV chargers. A frequent complaint of EV drivers is that too often, early-generation chargers aren’t functioning.
The funds are distinct from those awarded by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program — a separate $5-billion initiative created under Biden to facilitate a national network of EV infrastructure across the U.S., which was also paused by the Trump administration this year. Those funds recently began flowing again after a federal court overturned the suspension after a lawsuit from California and other states.
The funds from Tuesday’s lawsuit are crucial to California’s EV adoption and climate goals, state officials said.
“California will defend the Constitution, our communities and the future we’re building,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “With 2.4 million zero-emission vehicles on our roads and critical projects ready to move forward, we’re taking this to court.”
California is leading the nation in the adoption of zero-emission vehicles, with projections for at least 7.1 million plug-in passenger EVs on the road by 2030. The state was working toward a ban on the sale of all new gas-powered cars by 2035 before the Trump administration signed measures to block it. The state filed a lawsuit in return.
Trump also ended federal tax credits for electric vehicles. This month, the president announced a proposal to weaken fuel-economy and emissions standards that control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
Bonta said the state’s 50 lawsuits have protected $168 billion in federal funding that the current administration has tried to withhold from California.
Tuesday’s filing also was brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Last week, a federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s ban on federal permits for wind energy projects, another challenge brought by California and more than a dozen other states.
