Federal Judge Blocks EPA’s Suspension of $20 Billion in Climate Finance

A federal judge has blocked an Environmental Protection Agency order for the cancelation of some $20 billion in federal funding for energy transition-related projects. Access for the beneficiaries of that funding has also been blocked by the ruling.

The new head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, said in February he and his team were going to recover the “gold bars” that one former EPA employee was filmed as saying the agency was “throwing off the Titanic”, referring to climate finance to the tune of $20 billion that was being distributed post haste to entities involved in the energy transition in the final days of the Bien administration.

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Soon enough Zeldin’s team found the money, with the EPA’s chief saying “This pot of $20 billion dollars was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion with far less transparency. Some $7 billion of these dollars were sent to an entity called the Climate United Fund.”

Per the ruling of District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the EPA will be barred from accessing the funds deposited with Citibank because it “gave no legal justification for the termination” of the contracts that the Biden administration had signed with the institution, Politico reported.

At the same time, the three entities that were meant to be beneficiaries of the $20-billion pot—Climate United Fund, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities—will also have no access to the money. Essentially, the ruling amounts to a freeze that does not prevent the EPA from pursuing its intention to terminate the relevant contracts in the future.

Of the total $20 billion, $ 7 billion was granted to the Climate United Fund, another $2 billion was earmarked for projects by Power Forward Communities, and $5 billion was due to the Coalition for Green Capital. All three say that now they would have to lay off staff and cancel projects because they have no access to the money.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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