The federal district court for the Northern District of California denied a request to transfer to the Court of Federal Claims (CFC) several claims in a suit by 13 states and a California State agency against the Secretary of Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and OMB. The suit alleged that OMB took unlawful actions to eliminate energy and infrastructure programs and projects established and funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other laws. The complaint included requests for injunctive and declaratory relief to enjoin defendants from taking similar actions in the future and to restore the terminated programs, as well as a request to vacate the allegedly unlawful review process on a prospective basis. The court determined that 28 U.S.C. § 1500 barred transferring the claims challenging the past termination of grants to the CFC because those claims involved the same operative facts as those that would remain before the district court. It declined to rule on the defendants’ alternative motion to dismiss those claims because, under 28 U.S.C. § 1292, the defendants have 60 days to appeal the denial of their transfer motion, and adjudication of all implicated claims is stayed during that period or pending appeal. The court further denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the remaining claims that sought to vacate the policy underlying the grant terminations and to enjoin future terminations. It determined that the ultra vires claim was not barred by sovereign immunity because it challenged “actions allegedly taken contrary to specific spending requirements set by Congress’s Appropriations Acts of 2024 and 2025” and implicated specific constitutional provisions, making it a fundamentally constitutional claim. That claim also did not represent a “disguised breach of contract claim” that must be brought in the CFC because it requested equitable relief, which could not be granted in the CFC, and was not based on the terms of the contract. It also found that the plaintiffs had Article III standing because vacating the underlying policy would redress nonspeculative pending injuries that would result from further award terminations. Finally, the court determined that the agency policy represented a final agency action that could properly be challenged under the Administrative Procedure Act as arbitrary and capricious because the language of the memo establishing the policy was not tentative or interlocutory and legal consequences could plausibly flow from it.

Lawsuit challenging federal actions to eliminate energy and infrastructure programs and projects established and funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other laws.

California v. Wright

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

California Federal Court Denied Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Transfer to Court of Federal Claims in Challenge to Canceled Energy and Infrastructure Programs

Filed

United States of America

California

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Direct investments by the governments using public funds. This can be to support climate initiatives or integrate climate into other projects.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions to adapt and increase the resilience of rural and urban infrastructure and settlements to climate change.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Production of electricity and heat from solar irradiation.

Kinetic energy of airflow transformed into useful energy, mostly electrical energy.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

People who have left their homes, whether through force, voluntarily, or a mixture of both

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

California Federal Court Denied Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Transfer to Court of Federal Claims in Challenge to Canceled Energy and Infrastructure Programs

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance