Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday night that he has terminated $20 billion in green bank grants that were funded by the Democrats’ climate, tax and health care law.
Since taking office, Zeldin has railed against the program, which gave a total of $20 billion to eight institutions that are in charge of doling out the cash to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
In a video posted online Tuesday night, he said: “I have officially terminated these grant agreements entirely.”
Through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Congress gave the EPA $20 billion to make grants to financial institutions to help them give out cash to deploy climate-friendly projects.
In a press release, the EPA said it would work to “re-obligate lawfully appropriated funds.”
The agency said it would do so with “enhanced controls to ensure adequate governance, transparency, and accountability, consistent with statutory requirements.”
While it’s not clear how exactly the funds will be redistributed, President Trump has sought to redirect congressionally appropriated funds in the past.
During his first term in office, Trump took money from other purposes to fund his border wall. This time around, he has canceled congressionally-funded actions at agencies like USAID.
And in the video, Zeldin argued that the EPA had the authority to take action.
“This termination is based on substantial concerns regarding program integrity, objections to the award process, programmatic fraud, waste and abuse and misalignment with the agency’s priorities.”
One of the eight institutions that received money, the Climate Untied Fund, said in a written statement to The Hill that the EPA’s latest action is illegal.
“This is the EPA’s latest attempt to unlawfully dismantle the congressionally appropriated National Clean Investment Fund,” said Climate United Fund CEO Beth Bafford.
“Our legally binding contract with the EPA cannot be lawfully terminated based on unsupported claims and misinformation, and we will continue to pursue legal action to protect the communities we serve,” Bafford said.
Prior to the latest development, funding for the program, which was being held at Citibank, had been frozen. Climate United Fund, along with other grant recipients, have already sued the EPA.
