Attorney General William Tong today secured a major victory to protect Connecticut 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. In a ruling from the bench today, Judge Mustafa Kasubhai granted the attorneys general’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that the DOE policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The policy would have slashed reimbursements for staffing and administrative costs and threatened millions of dollars for essential energy programs.

“This was about Donald Trump trying to make it harder for states like Connecticut to drive down unaffordable energy costs and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Yet another ignorant, short-sighted move by this President to enrich polluters, funnel tax breaks to billionaires, and hurt the rest of us. We sued, and the court just handed us another decisive win,” said Attorney General Tong.