DENVER — Colorado has joined another multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time to claim approximately $600 million in federal energy funds approved by Congress.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is seeking an estimated $2.7 billion appropriated to 13 states through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the Biden administration.

“This executive branch seems to think they have the power of the purse. They get to decide what’s funded. That’s not how our Constitution works,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who announced the lawsuit with California Attorney General Rob Bonta during a Wednesday news conference.

That’s why Colorado is suing the Trump administration for the 54th time, Weiser said.

“We’ve done it before, 57 other times,” Bonta said of his state’s lawsuits. “And today’s proof that we’ll do it again until Trump gets the message that California will not back down.”

The lawsuit said the federal funding terminated by the Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget is part of several billion dollars approved by Congress for “a broad array of funding for energy, technology and infrastructure development.”

In Colorado, Weiser said the approximately $600 million withheld includes nearly $300 million for Colorado State University to cut methane emissions from low-producing oil and gas wells.

More than $32 million was awarded to the Colorado School of Mines for the development of a carbon-storage hub in Pueblo. Another $8 million was approved for the development of new solar technology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Colorado is committed to a clean energy future, protecting our land, air and water, and the types of grants that are literally being undermined by this action is what we need to do,” Weiser said.

The administration is targeting Democratic-led states with its cut-off of money for programs, he added. Withholding grants from Democratic states while allowing grants to go to Republican states “is a classic arbitrary and capricious action that cannot stand.”

Bonta, Weiser and Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown are leading the lawsuit. The other plaintiffs are Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Lawsuits against the administration signed onto by Weiser, a Democratic candidate for governor, include a challenge of President Donald Trump’s decision to move U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama; moves to cancel more than $25 million in public health grants; not releasing billions of dollars to build charging stations for electric vehicles; and a hold-up in money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois issued a temporary restraining order Feb. 12 to keep the public health funds flowing, saying the states stood a good chance of proving the federal government violated the law.

Asked by reporters about the resources spent to fight the Trump administration in court, Weiser and Bonta said it has paid off for the states in terms of the return on dollars. Weiser said his office received an additional $600,000 in state funding, which is being used to work on federal litigation.

“We have protected over $1 billion in funding,” Weiser said.

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