Photo Credit: Unsplash/Danny Oliva
Beneficiaries of a $20 billion clean-energy program that the Trump administration wants to claw back might sue to keep the money, a leader of one such group told Semafor.
Under the new leadership of Administrator Lee Zeldin, the US Environmental Protection Agency wants to knock down the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, citing concerns that the money — ostensibly to support low-carbon energy projects in disadvantaged communities — is being doled out “in a rush job with reduced oversight.”
The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of climate justice and environmental equity are over,” Zeldin posted on X last week.
But retrieving the money won’t be easy, in part because the nonprofits selected to disburse it countrywide could sue to block the effort, said Lenwood Long, Sr., chair of the board of the Justice Climate Fund, a coalition of community development nonprofits that was awarded $940 million from the GGRF.
“It is shameful that such actions are being considered,” he said. “These are not pork-barrel projects. These are seasoned organizations that have been doing lending and housing for decades.”
The GGRF was lauded by many climate advocates as an innovative approach to spurring energy investment in lower-income communities that were less likely to benefit from traditional clean energy tax credits. Its sizable budget made it one of the biggest single initiatives created by the Inflation Reduction Act, and one of the Biden administration’s primary vehicles for supporting climate equity. In the Trump administration, it’s hard to imagine a more glaring target, so the GGRF was always at risk. But ending the program could also undermine the administration’s promise to cut household energy bills.
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Silvia Rausch-Becker Redakteurin
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