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Attorney General Nessel Secures Court Order Declaring Federal Energy Program Cuts Illegal
November 10, 2025
LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has secured a major victory to protect Michigan energy programs, after the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon found that the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) cap on state energy program funding is illegal. Judge Mustafa Kasubhai granted the motion for summary judgment (PDF) brought by 19 attorneys general and 2 governors, concluding that the DOE funding policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The policy would have slashed reimbursements for staffing and administrative costs and threatened millions of dollars nationwide for essential energy programs.
“I am relieved that another Court has rejected the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to rewrite the rules on already allocated federal funding,” Nessel said. “Michigan and other states rely on these funds to keep vital programs running, and this decision reaffirms that the White House cannot arbitrarily strip away resources for renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives.”
In August, Attorney General Nessel joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general and two governors in a lawsuit to block DOE’s attempt to cap reimbursement of indirect (administrative) and fringe (employee benefit) costs at 10 percent of a project’s budget. The attorneys general argued that DOE’s cap violated federal law, disregarded states’ negotiated cost rates, and would undermine staffing and operations for state energy agencies. Judge Kasubhai sided with the states and found the funding cap illegal and in violation of the reimbursement regulations for DOE grants.
Joining Attorney General Nessel in this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
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