A US federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with the Trump administration in its move to cancel $20 billion in climate grants awarded under President Joe Biden.
As part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded eight nonprofits a total of $20 billion in climate and clean energy grants to serve as financing hubs that would channel federal money to smaller lenders for clean energy investments. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, his administration moved to freeze the funds after his new EPA administrator accused the nonprofits of mismanaging the grants and wasting taxpayer money. But lacking evidence for such claims, the agency instead argued in court that the cancellations were a contract dispute — a matter for a specialized tribunal.
On Tuesday, two of the three judges on the panel — both appointed to the bench by Trump — agreed and ruled that the case should be heard in the Court of Federal Claims. If the case does move forward there, the plaintiffs would “only be able to sue for damages and any possibility of reinstating the grants would be gone,” Heatmap wrote. It wasn’t the EPA’s only win in court this week: For the first time, a district court judge ruled in the agency’s favor in a separate lawsuit over grant termination.