A federal judge in South Carolina has ordered the Trump administration to open the spigot on federal climate grants for disadvantaged communities.
In an order issued Wednesday, Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina demanded that EPA administer a $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Program that the Trump administration had rescinded.
The order comes a month after Gergel found that EPA guidance terminating the grant program violated federal procedural law.
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Gergel at the time declined to enter a decision requiring EPA to implement the program. But the Obama appointee wrote Wednesday that his order required that program funds be made available through Sept 30.
