A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the EPA from clawing back some $20 billion in climate money the Trump administration said was shoved out the door by a departing Biden administration.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said the Environmental Protection Agency gave “no legal justification” for why it tried to reclaim the money or given the recipients of the money no chance to object or challenge the decision.
She issued a temporary restraining order against the EPA.
“To be sure, agencies can decide to re-evaluate their programs, or they may decide to end agreements or federal awards. But those decisions must be made lawfully and in accordance with established procedures and relevant rules and regulations,” the judge wrote.
The money had become symbolic of the Biden administration’s last-minute efforts to “Trump-proof” the government.
Project Veritas late last year captured an official revealing EPA’s plans to push money out the door, in what he compared to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”
New EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made it his mission to recapture the money, and earlier this month he declared success.
“The days of ‘throwing gold bars off the Titanic’ are over,” he said. “I have taken action to terminate these grants riddled with self-dealing and wasteful spending. EPA will be an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars dedicated to our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, not a frivolous spender in the name of ’climate equity.’”
He said the Biden administration was unable to spend all the money before it left but it “parked” the funds at Citibank. Mr. Zeldin pressed Citibank to stop releasing the money to the organizations that won the grants from the Biden administration.
The money was part of Democrats’ 2022 climate-budget bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which pumped a massive amount of taxpayer money into clean energy and environmental grants.
