A coalition of Republican-led states has urged a federal appeals court to uphold the Trump administration’s suspension of nearly $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants.
In a filing Friday with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, JB McCusky of West Virginia and 23 other Republican state attorneys general said EPA had “a duty” to rescind the grants. They said the grant program was mismanaged in a way that harmed their states.
The program’s criteria prioritized “climate equity” over financial stability, the states’ amicus brief said, “effectively directing federal taxpayer dollars to advance an ideological agenda that disadvantages energy-producing states like West Virginia.”
The brief comes as the D.C. Circuit last month agreed to reconsider an earlier 2-1 finding issued by a smaller panel of the court’s judges upholding EPA’s award termination. Oral arguments before the court’s full slate of active judges will take place Feb. 24.
