EPA’s embattled “green bank” grantees have asked a federal appeals court to step in to prevent the Trump administration from clawing back more than $16 billion in climate funding.
Five grant recipients of the Biden-era Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund filed a petition Thursday morning with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking it to reverse a three-judge panel’s decision earlier this month that would prevent them from pursuing their lawsuit against EPA in federal district court.
The plaintiffs — led by Climate United Fund, the program’s largest recipient — argued in the filing that the three-judge panel’s majority opinion erred in concluding that all cases that involve a contract with a federal agency must be heard by a federal claims court. Such a tribunal can award monetary damages for federal contract violations but has no power to stop EPA from canceling the massive climate program included in the Inflation Reduction Act and repossessing the money. The funds are frozen in Citibank accounts.
“Plaintiffs seek a prohibitory injunction barring EPA from interfering with their funds and dismantling grant programs in violation of public law,” the petitioners stated. “The Court of Federal Claims cannot consider those claims.”
