New Jersey joins lawsuit accusing Trump administration of unlawfully cutting DOE energy and infrastructure funding
New Jersey Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport joined a coalition of 13 states in filing a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully terminating or withholding congressionally approved Department of Energy funding for energy affordability and infrastructure projects. The lawsuit includes claims involving two Rutgers University agreements tied to building efficiency and agrivoltaics research in New Jersey.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names DOE Secretary Christopher Wright, the U.S. Department of Energy, OMB Director Russell T. Vought, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as defendants. According to the filing, the states are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional separation-of-powers principles, arguing that the administration cannot lawfully withhold or cancel money Congress already approved.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the administration’s actions threaten affordability in New Jersey by undermining efforts to expand in-state power generation and reduce utility costs. “Creating more in-state power will lower utility costs, benefiting both families and businesses, and improve affordability for all,” Sherrill said. “But President Trump is determined to make life more expensive by refusing to follow the law, and New Jersey will not stand for it.”
Davenport also sharply criticized the administration in the state’s announcement, saying, “Let me be clear: I will do everything in my power to drive down energy costs and make life more affordable for all New Jerseyans. But the Trump Administration is doing exactly the opposite, going out of its way to unlawfully gut programs that support affordable, clean energy—all in the name of seeking retribution against the President’s perceived political opponents.”
In its introduction, the complaint describes what it says was a broader effort that began on President Donald Trump’s first day in office in 2025, including executive orders directing agencies to pause disbursement of certain funds appropriated by Congress through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The lawsuit says those actions were followed by DOE “kill list” reviews and a later DOE policy memorandum establishing a review process for projects that had already been awarded funding.
The complaint also points to an October 2025 wave of terminations, alleging that DOE announced the cancellation of 315 awards worth $7.56 billion. According to the filing, the affected projects were concentrated in certain states identified in a public statement by the Office of Management and Budget.
In New Jersey, the lawsuit focuses on two terminated cooperative agreements involving Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. One was a $3.2 million award under the Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation, or RECI, program, issued jointly to Rutgers and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, with $600,000 in matching funds attributed to NJBPU. The other was a $1.7 million award to Rutgers for research into agrivoltaic systems, which involve placing solar arrays on active farmland, along with $178,782 in New Jersey cost sharing, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit says the RECI-funded Rutgers project, known as “BPS Ready,” was intended to support an evidence-based building performance standard and that terminating it deprived New Jersey of potential savings estimated at between $3.8 billion and $15.4 billion over five years, particularly through reduced peak electricity demand, demand response, and load shifting. For the agrivoltaics work, the complaint says Rutgers was partnering with stakeholders including American Farmland Trust, Delaware State University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and that the termination forced the university to scale back its work with one-third of the grant period remaining.
New Jersey is listed among the plaintiffs alongside California, Colorado, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.