BOSTON, (Reuters) – The city of Boston sued on Monday to challenge the Trump administration’s rescission of a $20 million federal grant for a streets improvement project, citing plans to install electric vehicle charging stations as a reason for the cancellation.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, says the charging stations represented less than 1% of the project’s cost and that the city offered to remove them, but the department refused to restore the funding.
The lawsuit is the second by a city challenging the US Department of Transportation’s cancellation of grants, issued under a program called Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE). The program was funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, former Democratic President Joe Biden’s signature 2021 law to address climate change.
The Department of Transportation in a statement on Monday said it is reviewing the lawsuit and “remains committed to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and in ways that benefit all Americans.”
The department in September 2025 terminated several RAISE grants that had funded projects nationwide, including pedestrian safety improvements, bike lanes and other transportation upgrades.
Boston received its $20 million grant in 2022 for a nearly $34 million project to redesign three heavily traveled streets in the populous neighborhood of Roxbury. The project included roadway repairs, wider sidewalks and measures to speed bus service for commuters.
“Boston earned this competitive grant to meet community needs and address long-needed infrastructure upgrades,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, said in a statement.
But the department under Trump withdrew the funding, saying the grant was “inconsistent” with its priorities because it would involve installing EV charging stations.
The Trump administration has pursued a series of policies aimed at boosting the sale of gas-powered vehicles and cutting EV incentives for automakers and consumers.
Represented in part by the Public Rights Project, Boston argues the department lacked legal authority to cancel the grant on that basis and that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutional separation-of-powers principles by doing so.
It says Congress did not authorize the department to rescind grants due to the inclusion of EV infrastructure and that underlying statutory criteria for the program prioritized projects that would improve environmental sustainability.
The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, last year filed a similar lawsuit, after the Department of Transportation withdrew an $11.5 million grant to support an urban trail project in the city’s downtown.
The department did so saying the project ran counter to its focus on promoting “vehicular travel.” The lawsuit remains pending after recently surviving a motion to dismiss.
The case is City of Boston v. Duffy et al, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:26-cv-14419.
For Boston: Megan Corrigan of the City of Boston Law Department and Cassandra Crawford of the Public Rights Project
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston
