A high-stakes legal battle over the Trump administration’s clawback of $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants landed Tuesday before a skeptical federal appeals court.
EPA and its would-be “green bank” grant recipients faced off in a rare hearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. During the en banc argument, the court appeared likely to overturn an earlier decision by two D.C. Circuit judges that sided with President Donald Trump’s EPA.
The three-hour argument centered on whether challenges to EPA’s termination of all Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards were contract disputes — as the federal government contends — or whether the agency’s decision ran counter to the will of Congress.
It’s an important distinction because disagreements over federal contracts are heard by a special federal claims tribunal that has no power to compel EPA to do anything. Plaintiffs could only hope for monetary damages. But statutory and constitutional claims are adjudicated in federal district court, which can compel agencies to reverse their policies — and, in this case, revive the green banking initiative aimed at bolstering clean energy projects.
