A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that EPA can terminate $20 billion in climate grants that was awarded to nonprofit groups last year.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would allow EPA to claw back the balance of those grants now held in accounts at Citibank. But the court left the accounts frozen for seven days after the opinion was issued to allow grantees to petition for an appeal.
The judges found that the nonprofit grantees challenging the Trump administration’s termination of the grants offered through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund “are not likely to succeed on the merits because their claims are essentially contractual.”
The opinion, which voids an earlier injunction from a district court judge, finds that the case should be heard by a federal claims court, not the district court. The Court of Federal Claims can award damages to the nonprofits if EPA is found to have wrongly canceled their grant contracts, but it cannot require the agency to go forward with the grant program.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, often called the 2022 climate law’s “green bank” program, would have expanded lending for renewable energy and electric transportation, largely in lower-income areas.
The grantees are likely to appeal the panel’s decision to the full appellate court.
