EPA says Trump’s big bill should help in its fight to freeze billions in green bank funds

WASHINGTON AP The sprawling tax and strategy bill that passed Congress repeals a multibillion-dollar green bank for financing climate-friendly projects and the Trump administration should be allowed to freeze its funding and cancel related contracts with nonprofits federal executives declared in a court filing Environment United Fund and other nonprofits in March sued the Environmental Protection Agency its administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank which held the venture s money The lawsuit argued the defendants had illegally denied the groups access to billions awarded last year through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund commonly referred to as a green bank The undertaking was created by the Inflation Reduction Act But the bill that passed Congress on Thursday would repeal the part of the law that established the green bank and rescind money that hadn t already been obligated to its recipients The EPA commented the bill should hand them a accomplishment in their court fight that is being heard by a federal appeals court in Washington Now that Congress has rescinded funding an earlier federal judge s decision forcing the EPA to release money to the groups should be reversed the agency reported in its Thursday court filing Situation United Fund disagrees It acknowledges that the bill in Congress is a essential guidelines setback but argues that the majority of the money had been disbursed and is unaffected by the bill And if the EPA needed to take the money back there s a different process the agency would need to follow Our funds have already been obligated and disbursed Any effort to claim otherwise is exclusively a lie to justify illegal attempts to claw back funds intended to benefit communities across the country CEO Beth Bafford explained in a report According to the EPA when the agency terminated the grants the funds became unobligated Grantees have desperately performed legal gymnastics to hold tens of billions of taxpayer dollars hostage In the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Congress made their intent crystal clear in repealing the plan entirely and returning those billions in unobligated funds to the U S Treasury EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch explained in a comment The green bank s goals run counter to the Trump administration s opposition to policies that address state change and its embrace of fossil fuels Zeldin hastily made the bank a target characterizing the billion in grants as a scheme marred by conflicts of interest and foreseen fraud In February Zeldin notified Fox News that he suspected the green bank was a clear cut matter of waste and abuse that in my opinion is criminal The following month Zeldin terminated the grants U S District Judge Tanya Chutkan has previously revealed that when the federal authorities was demanded for evidence of fraud the agency didn t provide it and shifted its position Chutkan decided the cabinet can t terminate the contracts and that the groups should have access to particular of their frozen money That order was put on hold during the EPA s appeal The agency argues the nonprofits are making constitutional and statutory arguments that don t apply in what it sees as a simple contract fight If the administration successfully argues the situation is a contract dispute then the EPA says it should be heard by a different court that can only award a lump sum not force the regime to keep the grants in place Federal personnel argue there is no law or provision in the Constitution that compels the EPA to make these grants to these groups In its court filing the EPA also pointed to comments by Republican Sen Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia chair of the Senate Committee on Circumstances and Inhabitants Works as supportive of the agency s position Capito mentioned previously the bill intended to rescind billions in funding that had been frozen This action reflects not only Congress s deep concern with reducing the deficit but EPA s administration of the green bank under the Biden administration the agency s selection of grant recipients and the absence of meaningful plan oversight the agency quotes the senator as saying The Associated Press receives sponsorship from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental agenda The AP is solely responsible for all content For all of AP s environmental coverage visit https apnews com hub climate-and-environment Source