A federal appeals court has sent a lawsuit challenging EPA’s termination of almost $3 billion in climate grants back to a lower bench.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Tuesday the district court should have determined whether the case had been mooted by Republicans’ repeal last summer of the Inflation Reduction Act before dismissing the case.
Citing that procedural error, the D.C. Circuit avoided taking a position on the question of mootness or the lower court judge’s decision to boot the case on other grounds. But the decision does hint at which issues the appellate court will prioritize in a separate high-profile challenge over a $20 billion pot of funding under the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
At issue in this case is a $2.8 billion IRA program that funded dozens of environmental and climate justice block grants.
