By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to end contracts agreed by the previous administration to distribute $20 billion in grants to fund clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities, he said on Thursday.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a message posted on X that he will ask the Inspector General, Congress, and Justice Department to work with the agency to end the contracts agreed with eight regional organizations that were named financial agents, and to rescind grant money awarded under the Biden EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Last April, the Biden EPA said the organizations would oversee the awarding of grants to groups and communities for projects ranging from home energy retrofitting to off-grid renewable energy in communities that have lacked access to green financing.
As part of the actions authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure bill, the aim was to kickstart projects over the next seven years to reduce or avoid up to 40 million metric tons of climate pollution annually.
Under the Trump administration, the EPA has been attempting to freeze funding related to climate change and environmental justice, and has been met with legal challenges.
Across the government, Trump’s orders have restrained at least tens of billions of dollars of funding for clean energy projects, conservation initiatives and transportation projects across the country, even violating a court order that required the funding freeze to be lifted.
Democratic lawmakers and groups suing the administration say that dismantling the funding will likely require Congressional backing.
“If Donald Trump wants to gut funding that is creating good-paying energy jobs all over our country, he can come to Congress and win the votes he needs to do that,” Washington State Democratic Senator Patty Murray said on a press call.
Zeldin in a video on X criticized the way the money was being disbursed under former President Joe Biden.
“It was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight,” he said.
The eight funding organizations declined to comment as they await more details about the EPA’s actions.
On Thursday, Zeldin also announced the cancellation of a $50 million grant to a group called the Climate Justice Alliance, citing its pro-Palestinian messaging on its website.
The CJA said on Wednesday it would sunset its $50 million UNITE_EJ grantmaking program because it had not been able to access the funding that the Biden EPA had obligated to the group but not yet disbursed.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Barbara Lewis and Marguerita Choy)
