by WorldTribune Staff, April 16, 2025 Real World News
Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday ordered EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to unfreeze $20 billion in grants that were awarded to climate change non-profits as the Biden Administration was on its way out.
Judge Tanya ChutkanChutkan ruled in favor of eight non-profits that sued Citibank and the Trump Administration, finding that the EPA unlawfully terminated the Biden-Harris regime’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created in 2022 by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Chutkan ordered the funds to be unfrozen at 2 p.m. Thursday and distributed to the non-profits they were originally intended for.
The Trump administration said it will appeal.
“The DC District Court does not have jurisdiction to reinstate the $20 billion Biden-Harris ‘Gold Bar’ scheme, which is further amplified by a recent Supreme Court decision,” a Trump Administration spokesperson said. “These grants are terminated, and the funds belong to the U.S. taxpayer. We couldn’t be more confident in the merits of our appeal and will take every possible step to protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”
Citibank — which holds several of the funds — said in an April 2 hearing that it would unfreeze the accounts if Chutkan issued such an order.
In terminating the grants in February, Zeldin referenced a video from December 2024 by Project Veritas that featured an EPA official saying that the Biden-Harris team was “trying to get the money out as fast as possible before they come in and stop it all. It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge.”
Maryland-based Climate United Fund sued after the EPA and Citibank denied the group access to $7 billion awarded by Team Biden last year through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Two other non-profits, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, also sued Citibank, alleging that the bank improperly froze an additional $7 billion to finance their climate projects.
The three non-profits are among eight groups selected by then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan last year to receive $20 billion to finance tens of thousands of projects to “fight climate change” and “promote environmental justice.”
Zeldin said the EPA’s decision to terminate the grants was driven by “substantial concerns regarding the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) program integrity, the award process, programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse, and misalignment with agency’s priorities, which collectively undermine the fundamental goals and statutory objectives of the award.”
The EPA could still shut down the program in the future, Judge Chutkan noted, as long as it follows proper procedures and gives nonprofits advance notice of its plans.
Chutkan was at the center of high-profile cases last year in the Left’s lawfare campaign which tried to derail President Donald Trump’s campaign.
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Judge Chutkan strikes again, orders EPA to unfreeze $20B in funds Biden gave to climate change non-profits added by Editor Two on April 16, 2025
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