A federal judge in South Carolina has rebuked the Trump administration for locking up billions of dollars in federal climate grants for disadvantaged communities.
In an order issued Thursday by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Judge Richard Gergel found that EPA guidance terminating the grant program violated federal procedural law for “policy reasons.” Congress funded the program through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
Gergel, however, declined to enter a decision requiring EPA to implement its $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Program.
Such a request, he said, “would presumably require ordering EPA to rehire and staff” the program, adding that an order to that effect would be “impractical.”
