A federal district court wrongfully blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from temporarily withholding billions of dollars in climate grants, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The District Court for Washington, D.C. granted an injunction blocking the Trump administration from withholding $16 billion in climate grants. Tuesday’s ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court finds that the lower court overstepped its authority in doing so, and that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was acting in accordance with its role to provide ‘proper oversight’ of how funds are distributed.
‘We conclude the district court abused its discretion in issuing the injunction. The grantees are not likely to succeed on the merits because their claims are essentially contractual, and therefore jurisdiction lies exclusively in the Court of Federal Claims,’ Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the court’s opinion.
‘And while the district court had jurisdiction over the grantees’ constitutional claim, that claim is meritless. Moreover, the equities strongly favor the government, which on behalf of the public must ensure the proper oversight and management of this multi-billion-dollar fund,’ the opinion continued.
The case relates to EPA grants worth $16 billion awarded under the previous administration to five nonprofits to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The nonprofits included the Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities, Inc., Inclusiv, Inc., and Justice Climate Fund, Inc.
When Trump took office, the new EPA conducted a review of the program and sought to cut the flow of funds. The five nonprofits then sued, and the district court granted them an injunction.
Judge Rao wrote that records show that one month before Trump took office, the EPA modified the grant agreements ‘to make it more difficult for the government to terminate the grants.’
The opinion also points to statements from an EPA employee who said that after Trump’s election victory, the EPA under President Joe Biden was ‘just trying to get the money out as fast as possible.’
