US Judge Blocks Trump's EPA From Clawing Back Climate Grants

A U.S. judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from recovering grant funds issued as part of a $20 billion climate funding program that President Donald Trump's administration has moved to terminate.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington issued a temporary restraining order halting the EPA's termination of three environmental nonprofit groups' grant agreements and barring Citibank from dispersing grant funding held at the bank in their accounts.

Those grants were terminated as part of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's campaign to claw back money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which Congress authorized in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act during then President Joe Biden's tenure in 2022 to kick-start projects aimed at curbing pollution.

The EPA under Zeldin's watch has maintained the program did not align with the agency's priorities, and it cited concerns with potential fraud, waste and abuse. The EPA has said the FBI and Justice Department are also investigating the program, including for potential fraud, waste and abuse.

But Chutkan said it appeared the EPA failed to take the legally required steps necessary to terminate $13.97 million of grants awarded to Climate United, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities.