Appeals Court Halts Federal Judge’s Order Mandating EPA to Disburse Billions to Climate Groups

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed a win to the Trump administration on Wednesday evening.

An appeals court blocked a lower court order that would have barred the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from terminating billions of dollars in grants to several climate groups.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Wednesday reversed an order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that would allow climate-related groups to access $14 billion of the $20 billion in grant money held by Citibank. Chutkan’s order also mandated that the EPA not suspend or terminate the grant awards program.

“The purpose of this order is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the district court’s forthcoming opinion in support of its order granting a preliminary injunction together with the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and any response thereto, and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the court wrote in an unsigned order. A separate ruling to set court deadlines and responses will be issued at a later date, it said.

The lawsuit was filed by Climate United Fund and other groups, alleging that the EPA, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Citibank illegally blocked the funds awarded last year and jeopardized the organizations’ operations.

In siding with the plaintiffs, Chutkan stated on Tuesday that Citibank must provide the money that was due to the nonprofits before the EPA had frozen their accounts in mid-February. The EPA immediately appealed and secured the appeals court ruling hours later.

Before the appeals court decision, Chutkan’s latest order unfroze about $14 billion of the $20 billion that was to be sent by the EPA to Climate United, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities.

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In 2022, the EPA received $20 billion in grants to fund climate-related programs for various groups under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in Congress and signed by then-President Joe Biden.

Those billions were granted to eight groups that would attempt to mitigate what they described as climate-related impacts. Those groups included the Coalition for Green Capital, Climate United Fund, Power Forward Communities, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, and the Justice Climate Fund. Those organizations have partnered with a range of groups, including Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity, and the Community Preservation Corporation.

But Zeldin, the new EPA head, announced in March that he would terminate those grants and argued they were disbursed in violation of the EPA’s statutory objectives and the Trump administration’s priorities to reduce waste.

“The only way we can reduce waste … is by terminating these grants,” Zeldin, a former Republican congressman, said in a video announcing the decision.

Chutkan had issued a temporary restraining order in March preventing the EPA from terminating the grants and said there was not enough evidence provided to back up the EPA’s allegations about fraud, waste, and abuse. But the Trump administration, in a recent filing, said it was allowed to end the contracts based on oversight concerns and shifting priorities.

The groups who brought the lawsuit also said in court filings that “EPA’s new admission that it ‘did not terminate for Plaintiffs’ noncompliance’ … confirms that EPA’s invocation of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ was arbitrary and pretextual.”

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris announced the grant awards last year at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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